Dynamic Magic Item Category Drop Chance
This mod replaces the vanilla post-battle item category roll with a dynamic weighted system that reacts to the items equipped by the characters in your army.
Instead of every item category having the same fixed chance, the game now adjusts the drop weights based on what your Lord and embedded Heroes currently have equipped.
In short: if your characters already have a certain type of item, that category becomes less likely to drop. Categories your army is missing become more likely.
This helps smooth out item drops across a campaign and reduces the chance of repeatedly receiving categories you don’t need instead of categories you do.
When a battle awards a magical item, the category selection now considers the equipment of:
• the army Lord
• every Hero embedded in the army
• any incomplete item sets equipped by the Lord
If most characters already have an item in a category, that category receives a reduced weighting, which makes items you dont have receive a higher weighting by comparison. If the Lord has any items from an incomplete set it will heavily weight the drop towards an item that will complete the set.
Examples:
If everyone already has a weapon equipped, weapons become less likely to drop. If all your characters have everything equipped except for a talisman, talismans become very likely to drop. Banners have a set value which at base is comparitively lower than other categories, so you are more likely to receive a full set of items before banners start to drop.
Over time this creates a smoother distribution of item types and makes it more likely you receive something your army actually needs.
Vanilla System
In the base game, item categories use a simple hard-coded weighting:
Each category has a weight of 1
Arcane items have a weight of 2 if a wizard is present
This results in roughly equal chances for most categories regardless of what your army already owns.
This Mod’s System
This mod converts the category selection into a fully effects driven bonus-value system. Each item category has a base weighting value. Every character in the army adds their weighting to the total. If a character already has an item equipped in that category, their contribution to that category is reduced by half.
The final weighted totals are then used to determine which category drops. The result is that item categories your army already has are gradually suppressed, while missing categories become more likely.
Example 1 – Single Wizard Lord with no items equipped
Armour, Weapon, Enchanted Item, Talisman = 10 points each
Arcane Item = 20 points
Banner = 5 points
Total weighting 65 points.
Arcane item (20/65) is most likely because it has the highest default base with only one character who is a wizard.
Example 2 – Wizard Lord with Arcane Item + Armour equipped and one Hero
Weapon, Enchanted Item, Talisman = 20 points each
Armour = 5 points for the Lord (already equipped), 10 for the Hero = 15 points
Arcane Item = 10 points for the Lord (already equipped) = 10 points
Banner = 5 points per character = 10 points
Total weighting 95 points.
Weapon, Enchanted Item and Talisman (20/95 each) are most likely to drop, then armour (15/95), then banner/arcane item (10/95 each).
Example 3 – Fully Equipped Characters
Wizard Lord + two Heroes
All characters have weapons and armour equipped
The Lord has an arcane item equipped
Talisman / Enchanted Item become significantly more likely = 30 points each
Weapons, Armour and Banner have a lower chance to drop = 15 points each
Arcane item is the lowest chance because only one character contributes to it = 10 points
Total weighting 145 points.
The system naturally pushes drops towards a Talisman or Enchanted item (30/145 each). Over time as more item slots are fully filled, banner drops become equal weighting to the other categories making them appear more often.
Does this work with modded items?
Yes. The system reads the category of items equipped on characters at the moment the battle occurs.
This means it doesn’t matter if the item is added by a mod or not.
Is this compatible with other mods?
Yes. The mod redefines the function within the script that determines the item category but does not modify/datacore that script or the database. It should therefore work with most mods that add or change items.
Can players manipulate the system?
To a degree, yes.
In theory a player can remove certain items to bias the category roll. Eg taking off all of one item prior to a battle will bias the drop towards that category if you receive a magic item post battle.
However, this type of emergent gameplay is only for players who really want to min/max their power. For normal gameplay the system mainly serves to smooth out item distribution.
Dechala?
Yes Dechala contributes twice as much weighting for weapons since she can equip 2, so equipping 1 will still mean she has a higher bias towards getting another item drop.
Moving the script to a bonus values weighting calculated opens up new design possibilities.
For example, creating a faction feature that can allow boosting a specific item category for the next battle.
For example a Lizardmen faction ritual could represent Slann divination by dramatically increasing the chance of a chosen artifact type for the next victory.
This mod provides the underlying system that makes those types of systems driven design possible.
As Creative Assembly has developed Warhammer 3 they have been moving more and more scripting design towards bonus values driven systems. This mod’s script is exactly designed to move the item drop system in that direction.
I have recently become unemployed and so am now working on mods full-time as I make an effort at pursuing my wild dream to get a job at Creative Assembly as a designer.
If you enjoy my work and would like to support me while I do, you can do so here:
Murranji Patreon[www.patreon.com]
