Does The Item Team Use A Custom Tool To Make Their Items?

Like something like wynndata custom items. Do they have a tool to make the items easily? Or do they manually have to make them using other means?

 

They probably just manually /give or smth, and probably give themselves max levels to test stuff

 

Wdym?

 

They probably use something like commands or an inventory editor to give them the items, then give themselves exp to level up professions so they can test whatever they need to

 

I think what he/she means is how the items are made, not how they are tested.

Typically items are made using a YAML file with certain values predefined within it. The person can then adjust those values, add values, or remove values in the file to create unique items. Once the YAML file is made for an item, they can spawn it in game through the particular item being named the name of the YAML file (so if a file was named "goldbar.item.yml" renaming the item as "Gold Bar" on the build server will spawn it as an item like we see in game with the stats reflecting those in the YAML file).

It's kind of confusing when you first hear it but if you were to see how it was done it isn't that hard to figure out. The same types of files are used to create mobs, quests, and other areas of the game, though those have their own set of mechanics that are used to customize and spawn them into the game.

(And if you're wondering how I know all this, I used to be part of the CT. I'm currently in the process of trying to rejoin it, but that's a whole other story that has nothing to do with this.)

 

They probably use a plugin ot something to calculate level IDs.

I am pretty sure the Item Team uses Wynndata for damage calculation too.

Yet I am not 100% sure ._.

 

I think there's several charts that they have that mark out how everything is balanced. I focused a lot on mob making and I used a simple document with guidelines stating how to make a mob balanced. While I never made too many items I'm assuming they do the same thing, though Selvut was about the only one actually making items at the time.

They might use Wynndata but probably only as a reference. As far as I know items are still created via YAML file in the GitHub for the server data, but it's possible that things could have changed in a year.

 

Thank you for the explanation.

 

For those not aware, YAML files are a type of data storage files (or at least, that's the purpose they're being put to in Wynncraft), similar to JSON and XML reee XML. The item code presumably reads the YAML whenever an item needs to made (drops, loot chests, /give-style commands, etc.).

Regarding balance, I know Salted has previously posted some of the charts used to estimate balance, which include stuff like the approximate damage an item should be doing at a certain level. For example, Selvut once mentioned that Praesidium does about 70% of the base damage for a level 97 rare spear, which is the cost of its defensive attributes. I assume similar charts exist for mobs, since boss altars are regularly referred to as having stats of 2-3x health and 1.5-2x damage versus regular bosses at their level.

I suspect the Item Team uses Wynndata, mostly because the damage calculation formula is a little tedious and item balance seems to have improved a lot recently.

 

https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/the-making-of-the-item-system.106300/
Also, they use curves (functions) to balance the items. Items are balanced by their damage and stats in relation to the curve. Items with more beneficial stats like defense% or mana will have lower base damage/HP. That's mostly common sense being applied there, I'm not an IM. They probably don't use wynndata. Spreadsheets work too. The math required for making an item is really easy. It's the applying that to the game and making varied items that's the hard part. There's also a lot of discussions that go on. Talking with some of the IMs, they mostly discuss new items and potential rebalances in their meetings. If you're interested in talking about abstract math problems in relation to damage curves and creating content for wynncraft, they are great peeps.