Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General Determination of item characteristics

I'd seen in a post that an item's characteristics are determined the first time it is examined/identified. In other words, once a pair of boots is dropped by an enemy, all that is certain about it is that it is a pair of boots. It is not until the character identifies it that the rest of its attributes are determined, correct?

I tested this the other night by saving the game once an enemy had dropped a pair of boots. I then identified them -- Monk's iron boots (or some such) -- and reloaded the game to see if the attributes would change. However, they did not. If it is true that the characteristics are randomly generated, would I have to completely quit the application and reload it to find if they change?

I'm not trying to exploit the game to unfairly gain better equipment; instead, I was curious and wanting to prove how the game acutally generates the attributes for randomly dropped items. Besides, my computer doesn't have enough power to reload the game quickly enough that it would be worth my while to examine an item ten or twelve times and hope to get something really good. . .

did you highlight the boots before you saved? i believe that is when stats are set. and you should only need to reload, not quit.

yes , normaly the item gets it's stats when you touch it with your mouse pointer. the same goes for chest etc.

but that does not go to say that the item
will have different stats everytime either,
some items will be the same no matter how many times you reload..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />
you must save "before" identifying,
and the reload if you don't like whatcha get! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Did you hit the alt key? That would set any nearby item's properties.
I never really reloaded for dropped items, except for the sword from the knight south of Stormfist castle.

I saved prior to identifying the item. After that, I identified the item and then reloaded my save game. When I identified the boots again, they were unchanged.

I suppose that I'll play with this a little more the next time I come across a randomly dropped item.

Here's a related question: Do items that are not randomly dropped have variable statistics as well? In other words, if I come across a sword in a dungeon that is lying on the ground, will its characteristics vary just like those of a randomly dropped item?

i found it to be sometimes yes and sometimes no, unless they are certain specific items..

Item stats aren't set when you Identify them. They are set when you first see the name of the item, eg. Boots. This happens when you move the mouse over them or press the ALT key. Only before this are the stats of the item undetermined. You need to kill the monster, save, then move the mouse over the item and see what it is.

i concur with what handefood & raze said.