Focus Gens

[Arnaya]

This is a huge one. I don't mind having my character sit at a gen for hours, but it really sucks when she comes away from those hours without a single battle worthy chak lol.

[Koi-Spark]

This is a huge one. I don't mind having my character sit at a gen for hours, but it really sucks when she comes away from those hours without a single battle worthy chak lol.

This was a product of SOT's server code, which is completely different from the Lyra server code we're using. Basically there is no way to make this change without completely rewriting the item gen server code without having to make ALL gens focus-specific.

My suggestion is to make a lot of friends who will give you good items when they gen. Maybe have a little trade show.

[Arnaya]

Lol, fair enough. Thank you for letting me know so I'm not keeping hoping to see results from the SM Gen creation project, doesn't mean Arnaya isn't going to keep trying to at least build some more good gens though

[Butterfly]

Forgive me if I am mistaken,but I thought there used to be focus-ish gens in Lyra. The two that come to mind are the gens in Chasm of Souls, one was Seer, the other FS. Did they just have a better chance of generating those items or am I completely off base?

[Koi-Spark]

To my knowledge SoT had different sorts of gens.

Lyra never did, gens are just gens. Based on the same loot tables as mares. Perhaps you just had luck with certain ones!

Yup, what he said.

[coltdorsey]

To my knowledge SoT had different sorts of gens.

Lyra never did, gens are just gens. Based on the same loot tables as mares. Perhaps you just had luck with certain ones!

I recall the character Golah claiming to have found some gen patterns. Not sure if there is any merit behind the character's claim.

When hunting, I tend to see cycles of talismen/color dropping in pairs. Few FS chaks one after another, sand elemens one after another.
When genning, I tend to see patterns in color. If a gold chalk chakram manages to gen, the next one to gen is usually a perfect color for Gatekeeper, except the wrong talisman, like a Gold Tan Shield. As Blade said, these are all probably coincidences but maybe not!

We should get some De Insomniis spreadsheets for this! :p

[Koi-Spark]

Make any claim you like in-character, but as far as the server code is concerned, generator outputs are completely random.
There is a table for each gen type that provides the allowed min/max ranges for each value, but here's essentially how it goes:

First, choose a random item function (chakram, elemen, alteror, shield).

Then each item gets properties assigned like so (let's use chakram as an example):
Graphic: Chakram
Velocity: Random range based on min/max velocity table for gen type
Bounce: Randomly assigned based on gen type bounce chance.
Damage: Random range based on min/max damage table for gen type
Effect Yes/No?: Randomly assigned based on gen type effect chance.
Effect: If it does have an effect, random effect based on min/max of gen type.
Charges: Random # between min & max allowed
Focus: Random #
Color1: Set based on the random Focus and the Gen Type
Color2: Set based on the assigned effect (chalk if no effect)
Name: Based on graphic and colors assigned.

So yeah, not only are the items and the assigned focus/element randomly generated, but so are almost all of the properties. Even the timing between item drops is a random range of time. Any perceived patterns you discover are coincidental. Sometimes you have good luck, sometimes you have bad luck.

Oh, and item drops from nightmares and DMs use the same code as item generators, they can just do more than one item at a time.

[Noidea]

Then how do the Codex-of-Learning gens work? Just curious.

[Koi-Spark]

Then how do the Codex-of-Learning gens work? Just curious.

If the gen type is Codex, then it skips the other steps and just assigns a random description from the list of codex entries.

[Malarky]

Then how do the Codex-of-Learning gens work? Just curious.

If the gen type is Codex, then it skips the other steps and just assigns a random description from the list of codex entries.

Couldn't you introduce James' generator code and add the items as additional sprites..Like Chakram 2.0?

Could add additional generators to the game that follow one random table and another that follows a table you can influence intimately.

[Sidas]

It's important to keep in mind that the SoT server changes caused the Mare Server to not work.

Items aren't that hard to acquire so it would likely be best to leave something like this alone.

[Koi-Spark]

Couldn't you introduce James' generator code and add the items as additional sprites..Like Chakram 2.0?

Could add additional generators to the game that follow one random table and another that follows a table you can influence intimately.

No, not as simple as it sounds. The SoT server wasn't even written in the same code language, so there is literally nothing that can be just copied and pasted from the server.
And there were so many changes made to basic functions in the client code, that's not a simple copy and paste, either. Everything we pull back from SOT has to be re-written more often than you think.

As Sidas says, items aren't hard to come by. Generators are one aspect, but don't forget you get item drops from mares and lots of items from Dark Mares, and let's not all forget Forge. Plenty of players have it, most of them with levels high enough that you can get better items than at a gen anyway. So if you want focus-specific uber items, I'd suggest Forging a few.