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Thread: Spell Books and Randomness

  1. #1

    Default Spell Books and Randomness

    Mainly playing Wizards, I would like to hear the thinking for having limited randomness in book drops. It seems like there is a limited set of books available that progressively expands. I don't see the value of starting with a book, and finding the same book once more in the UCA, then 2 copies in BVL for a recent example. A fan of randomness, I wonder if the sets could be expanded or eliminated?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    Some spellbooks are more common than others. You could easily see 100 spellbooks of Light before you find a random spellbook of Wish. I don't think there's anything fancy going on beyond that.

  3. #3

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    I think that's a good concept - a set probability of drop. It doesn't feel that way in play though, to me. I get statistics, but the RNG seems to get inself into ruts that don't seem random enough. Another single shot example doesn't mean much, but my current char's first 5 books went: Lightning Ball, Lightning Ball, Remove Curse, Remove Curse, Darkness. Although I don't disagree a lot with setting Spellbook rarity by probability (what's wrong with 1/~50 equal probability?) it still feels like there is an additional condition in place.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by mitres View Post
    I think that's a good concept - a set probability of drop. It doesn't feel that way in play though, to me. I get statistics, but the RNG seems to get inself into ruts that don't seem random enough. Another single shot example doesn't mean much, but my current char's first 5 books went: Lightning Ball, Lightning Ball, Remove Curse, Remove Curse, Darkness. Although I don't disagree a lot with setting Spellbook rarity by probability (what's wrong with 1/~50 equal probability?) it still feels like there is an additional condition in place.
    IIRC, remove curse is one of the most valuable (in gold) spellbooks in the game to sell. At a decent vendor, my memory is you can get 10-20k for it... two of them would put you well on your way to an early crowning.
    Hoping to win with every class, doomed. Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Beastfighter, Druid, Elementalist, Farmer, Fighter, Monk, and ULE Priest down.

  5. #5
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    FWIW (nothing), my first five books were Light, Knock, Web, Neutralize Poison, and Darkness. I'm looking forward to a more rigorous statistical analysis.

    Quote Originally Posted by mitres View Post
    (what's wrong with 1/~50 equal probability?)
    More expensive spells show up earlier when they are close to useless, the distinction between divine and arcane full casters is greatly reduced (they have different drop probabilities), and there's less long-term variety in spell repertoires.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grond View Post
    FWIW (nothing), my first five books were Light, Knock, Web, Neutralize Poison, and Darkness. I'm looking forward to a more rigorous statistical analysis.



    More expensive spells show up earlier when they are close to useless, the distinction between divine and arcane full casters is greatly reduced (they have different drop probabilities), and there's less long-term variety in spell repertoires.
    As someone who almost only melee/missile classes that list of books seems familiar, together with stunray, scare monster and similar.
    I have noted that divine casters get a lot more useful books now.

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