Dynamo

Dynamo is a system for creating a tree of potential outcomes in a variety of scenarios, namely, encounters, item generation, loot spawning. The system is designed such that outcomes can be arbitrarily composed.

Outcomes

An outcome is either a function from the list below or a value dependent on the system using Dynamo. In the encounter system the outcome value would be an spawn or a list of spawns, in the item generator an item property or a list of item properties, etc.

Levels

Dynamo allows the creation of multiple levels of outcomes. Currently it supports upto 4 levels: Default, Level1, Level2, Level3. The meaning of these are abitrary and are dependent on the particular system that is using them. For example, in the encounter system the different levels might indicate spawns for larger party sizes.

Functions

Most of the following functions are themselves outcomes. And so can be composed together.

Chance

A % chance that an outcome occurs.

Syntax:

Chance(integer, outcome)

Example: An item that had a 30% chance of granting +6 to strength.

Chance(30, AbilityScore(ABILITY_STRENGTH, 6))

Rotate

Rotates through a list of outcomes in turn.

Example: An encounter which will spawn a drow matron, then a drow weaponmaster in turn.

Rotate { Spawn("pl_drow_h1_matro"),
         Spawn("pl_drow_h4_wm") }

Every

A series of integer-outcome pairs. The count resets after the largest integer in the list of pairs is reached.

Syntax:

Every { integer, outcome, ...}

Example: Every 4th time the encounter is triggered a drow matron will spawn.

Every { 4, Spawn("pl_drow_h1_matro") }

If

A series of function-outcome pairs. The first pair is the if clause and the rest are elseif clauses. The first function that returns true will result in an outcome. There is no final else clause, in order to simulate an else clause nest the If in an Or function. The argument passed to the function is dependent on the particular system. For example, the encounter system might pass in the object that caused the encounter to trigger.

Syntax:

If { predicate, outcome, ... }

Example: Say an item is being generated for a particular player. We have a function that returns true if the player is greater than level 50 and one that returns true if the player is greater than 40th level. If the first pair is true the item will have death magic immunity or if the second is true the item will have immunity to knockdown.

If { level_gt_50, ImmunityMisc(IMMUNITY_TYPE_DEATH),
     level_gt_40, ImmunityMisc(IMMUNITY_TYPE_KNOCKDOWN)

Random

A list of outcomes that will be selected at random and evenly weighted.

Syntax:

Random(outcome, ...)

Example: Randomly spawn a drow matron OR a drow weaponmaster.

Random { Spawn("pl_drow_h1_matro"),
         Spawn("pl_drow_h4_wm") }

Range

A function that creates a range of potential values which can be substituted for an other integer value.

Syntax:

Range(integer, integer)

Example: Add +3-6 strength to an item.

AbilityScore(ABILITY_STRENGTH, Range(3, 6))

Or

A list of potential outcomes of which the first successful will be selected. Thus this is only valuable when used to compose functions that potentially won’t produce a value. Note that the order matters Or will go through the list of outcomes until it finds one that succeeds.

Example: Every 4 times the encounter is triggered a drow matron will spawn, all other times the encounter is triggered a drow weaponmaster will spawn. If the order of these were reversed a drow weaponmaster would _always_ spawn.

Or {
  Every {
    4, Spawn("pl_drow_h1_matro")
  },
  Spawn("pl_drow_h4_wm"),
}

Percent

A list of integer-outcome pairs. The integers when summed must equal 100.

Example: An encounter in which there is a 10% chance a drow matron will spawn, a 60% chance that a drow matron and a drow weaponmaster will spawn, and a 30% chance that only a drow weaponmaster will spawn.

Percent {
  10, Spawn("pl_drow_h1_matro"),
  60, { Spawn("pl_drow_h1_matro")
        Spawn("pl_drow_h4_wm") },
  30, Spawn("pl_drow_h4_wm")
}

Weight

A list of integer-outcome pairs. This is a relative chance.

Example: A loot table in which the chance of a common item dropping is 1000 times more likely than a super rare one.

Weight {
  1, Item("super_rare"),
  1000, Item("dirt_commom")
}