So the Idea is to let monsters wear random items with effects and all like a player. In the fight they might get "destroyed" so not all Items they used will drop in the end.
Is it possible to rework the "drop" system in that way? I have no clue how it works, just had this Idea in my head. that would make monster more random and reward more realistic
I think this is not necessary, in any case, you will not notice much of a difference. Also add armor / jewelry impossible (or very difficult), but you can add weapons. Yup, a special weapon is a good idea - it is visible, it can be added to a drop list.
Well It's totally possible to do, the drops from monsters are in the treasure tab in the unit editor. You could just add an special item as weapon and then just put it in the drop list, there is also the "Drop_on_death" flag, but I don't know how that works.
What I don't know is how that may work with random equipment, you could make and spawnclass, like "ratlings_bows" but I don't know how you make the ratlings archers roll their equipment from that list, If I recall correctly the mod "Human Enemies" does something like this, but without the drop of the item part.
Then there is also the issue of how to tell the player that the monster has a special weapon....
1. To make a monster's item spawn with random affixes, all you need to do is assign them a magic (or higher) grade item with no preassigned affixes. However, I would recommend against doing this. Some of the affixes can cause a pretty unbalancing change in the monster's damage output, with absolutely no visual cue for the player that this monster is more dangerous than the others who look just like him. Some of the affixes are also pretty annoying from the player's perspective.
2. To make a monster's item spawn with fixed affixes, simply assign them an item with fixed affixes.
3. There are two ways to make a monster spawn with a randomized item:
a. Make a spawnclass of the potential items and assign the spawnclass in the monster's equipment tab.
b. Make multiple clones of the monster, assign each one a single item in its equipment tab, create a spawnclass of the multiple clones, and edit the existing spawnclasses to replace references to the monster unit with references to the spawnclass.
The advantages of option b will become clearer in a minute.
4. To make the monster drop the item it's holding:
a. I know of no way to make a monster directly drop an item that it has equipped. Maybe the drop_on_death flag does that. You can experiment and see if it does. (However, that would be problematic from a loot balance standpoint because it would be a 100% chance to drop. You could mitigate it by using clones to simulate a lower drop chance.) As per Dee's post below, putting the drop_on_death flag on the item will make the monster drop their equipped item. This may be problematic from a loot balance perspective, since it means the monster will be dropping this item 100% of the time. A solution would be to clone the item, giving drop on death to only one clone, clone the monster (as per 3b above), and give that clone with the drop_on_death item a much lower chance to spawn.
b. If you used the clone method (3b) above, then you can simulate a monster dropping them item it has equipped by assigning the same item it has equipped to its treasure classes. (This also solves the loot balance problem since you can adjust drop chance directly.)
c. To expand on 4b, since you probably don't really want to put affixes on the item the monster has equipped, you can do this: Set the equipment for each clone of the monster to a no-affixes or fixed-affixes item modeled after the vanilla monster weapons. Set a treasure class on each clone to a spawnclass made of randomizable items with the same model and skin as the item the monster has equipped.
If you create the item as per the above and assign it to a monster to use via the equipment tab in the unit editor, it will use it as expected - this is how Runic do it, you will notice there are several weapons (in the main, special versions of existing weapons) created just for monsters.
If you then go to that weapon in the item editor, you can tick the 'DROPONDEATH' box in the flags section and the monster with that weapon equipped will always drop the item when they die.
Wow, that was more info than I was hoping for
I'll try that for sure.
You guys rock!