Lore Writer's Blog - Dragon Pearls, Inventory, & Loot

Hello everyone, it's been a hot minute since I wrote one of these, but now that I'm feeling better and back to coding, I wanted to talk about the new inventory system and the items players will be collecting, Dragon Pearls. This is something I've wanted to add to the game for a long time and am now able to finally do it. I'm currently building my own unique inventory and loot system with the help of Ztarli designing our UI.

So let's first talk about the dragon pearls. These are items you find in the world via AI loot, quest rewards, or exploration finds. Once you acquire one, it goes into your inventory (if you have enough available space). How much space you have is determined by your creature class and the size of the pearl.

There are 3 types of dragon pearls, Modifier Pearls, Cosmetic Pearls, and Skin Pearls.

Cosmetic pearls grant you a cosmetic effect, such as jelly flies that activates when resting or sleeping. These take up 0 space in your inventory.

Skin pearls are overlays that can be worn over your real skin, the Sandslayer Skin or Creator Skin are good examples. These also take up 0 space in your inventory. However, as with Cosmetic pearls, Skin pearls are Unique items and you can only have 1 of each skin in your inventory. They are also bind on equip, so once you equip them, they can not be dropped (traded/looted).

Modifier pearls enhance 1-2 stats, depending on the pearl quality. Quality levels are Lesser, Greater, and Ancient. Lesser pearls are the most common and grant a single stat buff of 1-3% and use 1 space, Greater pearls are uncommon and grant a single stat buff of 3-7% and take up 2 spaces, and finally Ancient pearls are rare and grant two stat buffs, a lesser buff and a greater buff and take up 3 spaces. With ancient pearls, if both buffs on the pearl enhance the same modifier, it is possible to enhance a single stat by a maximum of 10%, otherwise, it will enhance two stats, one by up to 7% and the other by up to 3%.

How many pearls you can carry is determined by your creature class level. A Flame Stalker is Class 5, so has a total of 5 spaces for pearls, plus the equipped space which can hold up to an Ancient pearl. The Zygovo, however, is a Class 1, so can only hold a lesser pearl and can only equip lesser pearls. The Biolumin is a Class 2, it can carry two lesser pearls, or one greater pearl, and it can equip up to a greater pearl, but not an ancient, as Ancient Pearls require a class 3 or higher dragon. The Acid Spitter, being Class 3, can equip the ancient pearl, and has room for a single Ancient pearl to swap out, or three lesser pearls, or one lesser and one greater. Alpha dragons get one extra slot, so an Alpha Acid Spitter (full grown Elder) can equip an Ancient pearl + carry an ancient pearl + carry a lesser pearl.

Going in to Update 1.0, the dragon with the most inventory space will be the Brood Watcher, and will no doubt be used by groups to carry extra loot to disperse to friends or clanmates.

The Loot system is being designed in such a way as to force players to choose what they carry and what they trade or drop. Dropped pearls will linger for 5 minutes before poofing and while dropped, can be picked up by anyone with the inventory space to carry them. It's also important to note, that Modifier Pearls are lootable, when a dragon dies, the modifier pearls in their inventory can be looted by other players, the loot, however, does not appear on the ground until the corpse has turned into a gore pile, so players will have to feed to loot.

Pearls that are bound to the player do not drop and are not lootable. If a player looted a skin pearl and did not equip it, then that can be looted. If it has been equipped (bound on equip) then it cannot be looted. DLC items such as the Jellyflies and Creator Skin can never be looted from other players and are always in your inventory on every dragon you create. Skin drops such as the Sandslayer skin can be looted if not equipped, and can also be traded (if not equipped). Technically, you could trade the skin to a friend who could hold it for you to log in your other dragon, then trade it to that dragon who can equip and wear the skin. This is designed in a way to allow players to trade skins for Ancient Pearls or Cosmetics and create a sort of economy in the game where Pearls are the currency, and things such as Skins, Cosmetics, other Modifiers, and even Nesting or Hunting Mercenaries are the goods.

I hope you all enjoyed this Lore Blog and I hope you are all excited about the new Loot and Inventory system coming in Update 1.0. It is going to be a game changer by providing players with an endless gameplay loop of trying to acquire better or different Dragon Pearls.

Until next time,

- Jonathan "Super Rhino" Slabaugh