Massive Expansive Mechanics (Updated: 3/15/2012)

[Dragon Sol]

! WARNING ! This post is very long, tl;dr is expected. But at least skim through parts of it to understand the gist of it. You can comment regardless if you've read the whole thing, but just as long as you understand what the idea behind all of these updates are. Then, you are also welcome to comment on certain aspects of various suggestions within.

 

#— Forethought

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I've come across a large amount of ideas branching from making the game interaction more fluent and efficient to rethinking the expansion of familiar combat/interaction.

 

The goal is to all of these are to allow players for not only a more relaxed experience whilst playing RuneScape in general, but improving and expanding on combat scenarios like encountering repetitive foes, familiar effects on PvM like training, slaying, or collecting loot, familiar effects on PvE and PvP.

 

With the main basis of the post focusing on the Summoning skill, we examine it to find many stumps that could be extended and branched from, new mechanics and concepts that would make the game both more interactive and more simple.

 

All of these suggestions can be vaguely compared to a simple, similar-nature feature that Jagex implemented to allow for intuitive ways to interact with the game: By allowing panning of the game camera by holding down the middle mouse button. I say that they're alike because, in one simple feature implemented, players no longer had to rely partly on the mouse and partly on the keyboard in order to allow for quick screen maneuvering.

 

Combat Portability

#1— Summoning Expansion

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Summoning has a huge impact on combat, obviously being why it counts as your combat level. It changes 'the game' of combat in two crucial manners. Allowing extra spaces for more items to be held and providing weapon-like abilities like invisible bonuses and special abilities (attacks). There are plenty of ways to expand further and add adjustments to mechanics to make both these factors more influential.

 

They can also be very impacting for skillers. Many of the familiars are meant for skilling objectives. Some ideas I go through discuss the possibility of player control for familiars, which allows for two separate characters that you can control to skill.

 

With these Summoning updates, combat talked about first, players can make use of summoning to both engage in combat more effectively with the support and train their skills more efficiently with more hands. It's an update to one skill that effects almost every other skill.

 

It's goal is to make the game a lot more interactive and challenging, rather than slow and repetitive like many players complain. Though it doesn't make training significantly faster, it is both more engaging for a player and also more practical and efficient when attempting a task.

 

BoB

• Interaction

Allow the BoB interface to remain open even if being attacked. I believe this was not an intentional nuisance because it clearly allows you to view the interface while in a combat state, but closes when interrupted by a hit.

 

Either:

• Make it so you can't open it at all while in combat.
  
• Allow it to be open and make it not get interrupted by hits.
  

So: People don't have to time when to open the interface; right in between hit intervals.

 

Though: You can probably never keep the interface open to do anything if there are multiple things attacking you. So, this may be done on purpose so the more things or people that are attacking you, the harder it is to keep it open.

 

Why? Once again, this is to make combat more fluent and easier to manage. There shouldn't be small fusses we have to contend to because we are trying to do something with our BoB while in combat. Just allow us to or don't. TMO

 

If do: Decide whether to allow the interface to be open without affecting the character's actions: If they can continue moving or retaliating to combat or should it pause all activity by the character by stopping movement.

 

So: It's either non-stop access or full-stop to access. In a PvP situation, they could either always freely manage their BoB as if it's their inventory or get to safety before pulling out extra items.

 

• • All-Access BoB (Expanded Inventory)

If people agree that it's a good idea for people to be able to have free-access to their BoB as if it's part of their inventory, why not make it literally an optional always-seen interface while they're playing?

 

In PvP: There would be actual use to trying to kill your opponents familiar to get rid of their extra inventory space.

 

This would mean: You would have to resize the interface from covering up the center of the screen. Move it to the side, make it smaller (and the item pictures as well if needbe), and even allow it to be draggable like recently shown with the Squeal of Fortune interface button.

 

This could be different: Depending on what screen mode you're in.

 

Resizeable/fullscreen: Allows for a slightly larger interface, just like how bank interfaces are expanded.

Fixed: Requires for all the items to be as close together as possible without overlapping, and if that's not enough, slightly shrink it's size to fit somewhere neatly on the fixed window.

Alternative solution: Allow the interface to be a pop-out or an inventory-tab interface. Just like the current 'Follower Details' interface opens a new invisible tab showing the details of the familiar, you could click 'Store' and open up an invisible tab showing all the items inside the familiar. But since the max amount a familiar can carry is 30 rather than 28, you would probably need to resize/change the row and column dimension.

 

• • • Whether BoB Should Be Interactable or Depository

So, turns out there are probably many ways to proceed through this.

 

Should items in the BoB be interactable like it is in your inventory? Now that it could be open/visible while playing. Or should you only be able to move/transfer items to your inventory, then interact with the items inside your inventor? Later, I talk about expanding on the abilities to maneuver items around separate interfaces, so regardless of the restrictions that may be present on purpose, it will allow for ease-of-managing your items.

 

I say, with these additions which increases practicality, that you should have as much freedom as you need with your familiar and yourself.

 

As implemented, you can only move items from and in to your BoB, but you cannot interact with any of the items until they are in your inventory.

 

Should it remain this way because the idea was that you couldn't interact with items inside a familiar? Or should it, IMO; a more logical approach, be allowed to interact with items inside your BoB as long as you are within melee distance of your familiar, as you are also required to be just to open the interface. That may mean drinking potions from inside your familiar or wielding/using items stored inside.

 

The fact of the matter is, beasts of burden are meant to increase your inventory count. But as far as I'm concerned, it's just a lack of better mechanics that you can only interact with items inside your inventory. While it makes sense, you cannot/shouldn't interact with some items inside your bank because it's a storage complex, but the idea of your beast of burden is to follow you and support you.

 

Some may say, that would allow for too much flexibility between the items inside your BoB as if it was just another part of your inventory. While that may sound somewhat true, consider the fact that with this mechanic, transferring items to your actual inventory than your BoB is in fact still detrimental due to the possibility of losing your familiar.

 

Control & Combat

• Selecting

As we step in to the aspect of controlling familiars, we want to figure out another intuitive way to be able to control your familiar at will. The idea of combat familiars is their "follower instinct", it should really be actively supporting its master. But without an AI, the only semi-direct way to control something other than your own character smoothly is by being able to quickly select it and putting your control from your character to the familiar.

 

That's why the first option on a familiar should be a unique option only shown to the owner of the familiar that can quickly address the users' needs. It should always be the option on top when hovering over your familiar to guarantee ease-of-access.

 

While its uses may remind you of your Summoning Orb next to your minimap; I get that because all of the numbers like your prayer and hitpoints are up there and so should your Summoning Points, but it's not ideal for you to have to look up to click on the orb and find the option. Perhaps leave the orb to only show your Summoning Points and perhaps the 'Dismiss' option, as you wouldn't need to find your familiar to click on it to be able to just dismiss it at will.

 

The orb is somewhat close, but why not allow for you to click in-game, where your familiar is? That makes so much more sense. In a combat scenario, you're always looking at the main gamescreen. You interact with what's in it, and you're familiar is in it so why not allow you to interact with it through the game?

 

A single-click allows for you to select your familiar, then, like the 'Follower Details' tab, revamp it to show the familiars information as well as it's abilities. With three buttons of the main familiar usages: Store BoB, Take BoB, Use Special or Call Familiar.

 

Note that this option doesn't require you to be next to your familiar, just when you click it, you should literally have selected it as if you are using an item, or like in a strategy game, when you've selected a unit.

 

• • Attack Moving

Clicking on the familiar should mean you could immediately click on an opponent for it to attack move on it.

 

No need to click on the 'Attack' option on the far right Summoning Orb, next to your minimap, before clicking on the opponent.

 

• • Movement

If you have the familiar selected, you should be able control it like make it run to a certain spot, then attack. It's as if you are turning your control to your familiar temporarily while you have it selected.

 

Of course, you can't make your familiar run too far away, or it won't go any further, to be fancy you could add a 'quick-halt' animation, showing its intention to go no further. It should also avoid going out of sight of the player, like behind an object.

 

• • • Energy

Much like familiars have built-in stats, they should also have a limited amount of run energy if controlling of movement is allowed. Of course, they should always recover faster than the player, as this allows for the familiars to always be ahead in terms of energy to be able to catch up with the player at all times, but the familiar shouldn't be able to run around endlessly everywhere whenever the owner feels like (maybe they should?), they can run out of energy like in a boss battle, from 'over-micro', which could lead to some hassle or pain. Also, the amount of items a familiar is carrying, or just the nature of the creature (size/agility) could determine how fast their energy drains/recovers.

 

Say a Pack Yak with a full load of items wouldn't be able to move for as long as a Terrorbird.

 

• • Calling

You can always call it to teleport straight to you so you can interact with it directly (BoB). Also, since now you can make it move to different places, you shouldn't always need to make your familiar teleport when you call it.

 

You should be able to single click the 'Call Familiar' for your familiar to attempt to start following you again. Double-click to make it teleport next to you.

 

• • • Teleport Animation

Also, improve the teleport animation, make it take a second or two, add a longer animation to it. Make it turn into a "spirit form" like all familiars are meant to be, and very quickly fly to you and turn back into a creature.

 

• • Microing

If you've heard of the term 'micro' from playing RTS games, you know it means fast clicking to very efficiently and effectively control a unit with possibly different abilities you must memorize hotkeys for. Well, believe it or not, you micro your character. Not very intensively normally, but in combat situations like hybriding, it can get more advanced.

 

This would encourage more micro/intensive clicking, if you are able to micro your familiar around. Say make it do ranged attacks and then move it away, then attack again. Running around a boss to attack it from behind so that it turns to retaliate. Running in circles so that an enemy cannot attack it. And so on.

 

This would also mean, in a PvM & PvP situation, you could control your familiar as if it's a second character. You could be in a single combat zone monster area, and control both your character and your familiar to be killing monsters at the same time, in a multi-combat zone, you could be controlling it very easily to do special attacks, melee or ranged attacks, and in a group clan wars situation you could be making your familiar attack someone else's BoB familiar.

 

Combat Expansion

• Component Changes

These summoning updates will significantly, while not deviate from the current turn-based combat system.

 

It will enlarge the compacity required by a player that is to be proficient with all the elements of combat. These new elements being controlling of a secondary character and interacting with both the environment and with your other character.

 

• Your characters will be able to simultaneously interact with the environment, fighting monsters, bosses, players, or doing skill activities.
  
• Your characters can be also interacting simultaneously with one another.
  

This allows for several more controlling components to a combat scenario. It would be PvP, PFvP/PvPF (player familiar verses player combat), PFvPF (familiar verses familiar combat), PFvE (monster-killing, skilling), or PvE.

 

PvP Changes

• Offensive or Defensive

You can be offensive or defensive just like in the current combat system. Players either bring familiars that aid in combat (currently mainly multi-combat areas), BoB familiars to carry more supplies, or healing familiars. This is a crucial conflict for the two main types of familiars, offensive and defensive, which can be expanded upon.

 

Here's the simple conflict chart:

1. Offensive - Offensive
   
2. Offensive - Defensive
   
3. Defensive - Defensive
   

 

• • Countering

Players that bring fighting familiars could choose to either focus their attacks on an opponent's defensive BoB familiar, striking at their expanded inventory, or at the opponent, to deal extra damage. Then, the player with the defensive BoB familiar would have to choose to either focus on the opponent or the fighting familiar, either attack them or attacking their BoB/healing familiar.

 

If both players have offensive familiars, they could either focus on each other, or the two offensive familiars could have separate battles to themselves, even in a single combat zone, as they would be fighting their own battle.

 

• Single Combat Zone Division

Now, this could change the behavior of single combat areas. All players are almost required to have familiars. Due to single combat zones allowing battles of familiars, and all familiars have their counteractive, players are forced to bring a familiar of their own or suffer at a disadvantage.

 

This would call for a slightly more complex single combat zone. If say, someone makes their familiar attack another opponent, them, the players, and their familiars would be engaged in a group, 1 player v 1 player (but with familiars) fight.

 

Single combat zones would have to be more distinctive. There may be a need for an addition of a separate single combat areas, some designated to familiar 1 verses 1 fights (where everyone are using familiars) and some to old school 1v1 without familiars or just with support, non-offensive familiars. This would mean offensive familiars would be useless in this zone as you cannot attack with both your familiar and yourself, and you need to be attack yourself to attack with your familiar.

 

I am for this impacting change, because currently, BoB familiars are allowed to be used in single combat zones, and that is basically making use of familiars, just not attacking with them. So, they should allow for complete freedom of using familiars, even on other players, as long as it's just one of the familiars from the attacking player that's attacking as well.

 

I'm sure other people will disagree on that, and that would be something probably debated upon and ultimately decided by Jagex themselves, but there's no room to say that there would be no way for it to work.

 

They could either do that or split the zones in the areas, as this new type of combat scenario, fighting one-on-one with familiars, would be very interesting and enjoyable to partake in.

 

The single combat zones could be designated as follows, 1v1 with only support familiars (non-offensive, healing/BoB) and 1v1 with familiars (both can engage in combat with one opponent or their familiar).

 

1v1 with familiars could be on the borders of where single and multi-combat zones meet. So, as an in between zone so-to-speak, players can still engage in 1 verses 1 fights, except with familiars.

 

• • 1v1 w/ Familiars

Doesn't that sound awesome? Oh yeah, it's like being in a duel arena with Summoning on, which doesn't happen that often as the uses of familiars are not quite worthy.

 

Players could switch between attacking one another's familiar because they were doing something that made them change their focus. They could be commanding their familiars to either attack the main opponent or the other player's familiar; because either they are trying to get the opponent's familiar to attack their's or trying to attack the opponents familiar attacking them.

 

There's a cycle just like in hybrid fights, of counter to counter.

 

PvM Changes

• General Changes

These updates would increase the intensity of microing two characters in order to achieve maximum proficiency of using the game's features.

 

With the abilities of the expanded summoning familiars, you could choose through several different tactics when dealing with different monsters.

 

• • AI Improvement

Due to familiars now being active in killing monsters, they will now need to know how to retaliate properly to familiars.

 

If monsters are aggressive, they should also target for familiars.

 

• Bosses

They will of course now need to target familiars as they are a significant advantage to players. Soon, special attacks could also be implemented just to deal with familiars.

 

Considering that these are support characters, bosses should be able to easily kill off these familiars to deny a player of using them.

 

PvE Changes

• Controlling As Skillers

Now that movement of familiars is controllable by players, making them fully commandable characters, they can be separate skiller characters that can do the same activities as players, along with them.

 

For example, woodcutting with the beaver, the beaver could be changed to have to cut logs just like the player.

 

This makes players have to actively control the familiar, as if the tree has been chopped down, the beaver will stop cutting for logs, and you would have to select it and make it cut another one.

 

• Familiar Skilling Animations

As familiars are now separate characters that can do individual tasks along with players, they should have animations for all the skilling activities, unique to themselves.

 

The beaver can be seen chipping at trees, the granite lobster diving into the water and clawing for fish, the ibis flying around above the water and diving in to catch fish, etc.

 

Familiar Combat Abilities

• Purposes

Familiars with powerful offensive abilities could soon be used as "special attacks" so commonly used to knock-out an opponent.

 

For example, you can purposely fight your opponents familiar to lower their familiars health, but switch to attacking the main opponent when they are low on health, with a special attack, and possibly kill them, thus killing their familiar as well.

 

Offensive familiars are meant to strike and deal damage to an opponent, while defensive familiars are there to support the main character by supplying items or casting spells to buff the opponent in various ways.

 

We can even move on to add more types of semi-offensive/defensive familiars that can both deal damage and bring benefits to the main character. Like spellcasters with AoE (area of effect) abilities.

 

• Attack Styles

Obviously, offensive familiars can do primary striking attacks, but perhaps with different styles that target specific weaknesses (slash, crush, stab, magic, range).

 

These familiars should also possibly have different types of ranged attacks on top of melee attacks, or just one. Ones with both range and melee attacks could do possibly more intensive manuevers like kiting (hit and run) and running behind obstacles. Melee familiars would be required to have good control to not get stuck or get left behind.

 

• Movement Styles

I talked briefly about the energy level of familiars. This is where more different stats could be added for different familiars, some being faster, some with more energy, some recovering faster, etc.

 

Offensive familiars should be faster and more agile, also depending on the various types of sizes of the familiars. Defensive familiars should probably be slower, and drains in energy faster with more carried items.

 

• Special Attacks

Offensive familiars should also have special attacks that deal addition damage or add an offensive effect on the opponent. Just like special attacks of weapons. These can be used directly on the player to deal a combo of damage.

 

BoB familiars, as a main duty, are to carry additional items. This means, it's important for it to have plenty of health and defense to tank any damage. In additional, they should have some bonus abilities, like the current ones, all of them being support spells.

 

Healing and spellcasting familiars that do not carry items should of course have a main ability of healing or defending the player. There should probably be specials that boost or negate damage, as a counter to the special attacks of offensive familiars.

 

• Improved Death Animation

Familiar death animations would have to be improved drastically, like the one I described for familiar teleporting, the swift dissapation of the "spirit" of the familiar is acknowledged.

 

As the familiar dies, it suffers an additional death of its spirit, shines brightly and is sucked upward, out of the realm of the current world. With blooming and motion blurring upward as the "soul" of the "spirit" flies up into thin air.

 

 

 

Game Interaction

#2— Items

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There should be some additional features implemented to allow easier maneuverability and management of items. Any interaction with items like moving, sorting, and using.

 

• Moving

Currently, you are only able to move an item within the compounds of a storage by dragging. To move it to another, you must select the amount you want to move by clicking left for the default amount (1) and right clicking to see additional values.

 

Why not allow dragging across two storage areas. For example, from your bank dragged into your inventory, would withdraw as much as it can, if not all of it, much like right clicking 'All'. There could even be a toggle that allowed you to always 'withdraw all but one, unless there is only one' when dragging an item from your bank into your inventory, as to leave a placeholder if it is a stacked amount of items.

 

Just imagine, doing a runecrafting run, a farming run, a slayer task, anything. Especially when you are safe, you just need the specific items, not dependent on the amount. Simply do a quick click and drag into your inventory and you've got it.

 

Another thing to note, due to the nature of using left-clicks to 'use' items, you should drag-to-move items by right-click dragging instead. This would avoid the possible conflict to what they want to do.

 

• Sorting

Change the way you toggle swap/insert with sorting items.

 

This way makes it universal throughout all interfaces. Instead of only when using a bank, simply drag an item in between two items to insert it or right on top of an item to swap their places. You would be able to do this across two compound spaces like from your inventory to your BoB, deposit box, or bank.

 

• Using

Allow using items on an object by dragging it to the thing you want to use it on.

 

This may need a tweak that allows for the "use-on" line(s) around the item to appear once you begin dragging an item. If you let go without it being on something you can use it on, it would automatically cancel the usage. Otherwise, it will automatically try and use the item on the thing you let it go on. Examples: Decanting potions, using quest items, or putting together assortments of items.

 

#3— Option Menus

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The same idea applies in this aspect; to enriched the ability to conveniently scan and select options in a pop-up menu. There are various ways to improve, ever so slightly, the effectiveness in choosing options in a menu.

 

• Right-Click Hold Selection

As a common, intuitive alternative to selecting pop-up menus that appear right as you right-click is being able to hold on to your right-click and letting go on the option you want.

 

This allows for single right-clicks for selecting options, which could benefit in various ways like looting many items or clicking a monster fast to attack.

 

Just think of how many times you've clicked throughout playing RuneScape. RuneScape is an extremely click-reliant game. Many players over the span of playing have easily clicked more than tens of millions times. Just imagine cutting that down by half, even just half. That's a lot of clicks saved.

 

This could also be as useful as the mousekeys' usage of dropping or selecting the secondary option for an item. Power-trainers rely on clicking items as fast as they can, so they use mousekeys. With this, it would virtually be the same thing. You single click, hold, and very swiftly move over the option you want and let go instantly and it would probably be as fast as using mousekeys.

 

• Hover-Over Selection

Another intuitive method is the mouse hover-over method. Similar to when Jagex first introduced the new stat interface a long time ago, you can now hover over a skill for a short period of time and a pop-up menu would appear showing your statistics in that skill.

 

This allows for a clickless option display on objects of interest, and single-click to select an option.

 

To not make it an annoyance, make the timer as reasonable speed that shows that a player is clearly interested in the option, thus they are holding their cursor over it.

 

Once again, the amount of clicks you could save. Especially clicks that wouldn't have been done because you just wanted to see what options there are for something. Rather than right-clicking everything you could just leave your cursor over it.

 

And note that I say that this should only be for objects. Freely present objects in your game screen should allow for this feature, but items and options of interface shouldn't always have a hover-over menu. This makes it work with the previous idea of letting right-click hold selections. That way, you won't get bombarded with different options every time you hover your mouse over an interface option.

 

• • Hotspots for Options

Rather than the current system, relying on the location of the object to show the options, this function would require placement of hotspots on the center points of objects with sets of options. This prevents other object's options to be shown along with the rest of the options in that same spot.

 

For example, if the current spot has both a player standing on it and a pile of items, that location would contain all of those options of all the items and the players. However, should you hover your mouse over just the player, it should only show the options for just the players standing in that spot rather than both the player and the items' options. And to see the options for the items and not the player, you would hover over the pile of items underneath the player's feet.

 

Game Mechanics

#4— Drops on Death

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Currently, there is an extra amount of time that you must wait before the loot of a killed opponent appears. Depending on the length of the animation, it must first play a death animation before the loot is left behind.

 

While this repetitive animation glorifies the loot by delaying it slightly, being that someone is trying to, as quickly as possible, kill a large number of the same monster, the player will have to endure the slight wait every kill they make. This could be a tiny bit troublesome for players that are in-the-action and need to get what's left immediately to move on.

 

• Valuable Drops

Make valuable drops appear right after death, this makes looting a lot quicker after each kill.

 

Players can collect loot quicker to move on to the next target then waiting for the same repeated death animation such as on slayer tasks with creatures that die very often, many times per trip that the player is there.

 

• Unvaluable Drops

Appear after the death animation, as it is non-priority to loot these items.

 

This way, the idea that items appear after the target has despawned still remains, except with the priority drops appearing as soon as possible.

 

• • Players' Notability of Drop Values

Because players are able to tell if a monster has dropped something valuable by seeing it appear right after its death, players are able to swiftly move on to the next target. This makes no need to stay an wait for the loot to appear, to make sure that you didn't miss something valuable. If you kill it and something valuable is dropped, you can pick it up immediately so to move on with more killing.

 

• PvM (non-bosses)

Bosses should not receive this adjustment because the animation is the glory to its defeat while killing many monsters is a task to be done efficiently.

 

I realize: *This would increase the rates of profits from monster killing, but only monsters that are killed very quickly would this make a small impact on the total time it takes to kill each monster.

 

*But since monsters you would be able to kill fast (e.g. not bosses) would likely not have a high-valued loot table, you would only be benefiting a couple of seconds less per kill (the time it takes for the animation to play), being able to kill one and immediately loot their valuables and move on to the next, rather than waiting for it to die and show it's loot.

 

The benefit is more for the proficient players that like to move from one task to the next as fluidly as possible and I think some people may support the idea because of that.

 

• PvP

This feature doesn't need to be implemented for PvP because the speed at which the death animation finishes is already short enough.

 

#!— Conclusion

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Those are the current ideas that I believe would truly influence a larger range of game mechanics, expanding the opposite ends of the game, both influencing a more practical and relaxingly smooth gameplay and making the possible intensity of gaming that can be achieved with the number of "multi-tasks challenges" that arised with the advanced combat components and capabilities.

 

I am always trying and happy to create these new adjustments and alterations to benefit the player's experience. How about you? Is there anything you can think of that would help make the game not less challenging, but rather more practical mechanically?

 

Thank you for reading.

[The_Avatar]

You've got some great ideas, particularly about Beasts of Burden. However, your use of bold and underline makes a good portion of your post unreadable.

[Dragon Sol]

Sorry, underlining seems to bold as well here. I just had most of the key statements underlined (which is a large majority of the sentences). Perhaps I'll just italicize it here.

[Hedgehog]

Sorry, underlining seems to bold as well here. I just had most of the key statements underlined (which is a large majority of the sentences). Perhaps I'll just italicize it here.

No it doesn't

[Dragon Sol]

I think it's because if you've hidden your words, underlining becomes bolded:

underline

[hide]underline[/hide]

 

So, yes, it does.

[Dragon Sol]

Tiny nudge.

[deacon377]

These are some great and well thought out ideas. Good job OP.

 

Edit:The bold underlining did not disturb my reading, it also highlighted key points of the suggestions.

 

Edit2: I was re-reading and thought of something whilst perusing your section about familiar death animations

For instance, when a lava titan dies, it could temporarily scorch the earth around it.

Or when your unicorn finally bites the dust a small ring of flowers/plants (non-useful, of course) could form temporarily

Minotaurs die- which every type it is there could be mineral dust...for instance Mithril dust for a mithril minotaur, or rune dust for a rune minotaur

 

 

Edit3: As far as your ideas on valuable and invaluable items, I'd say that would be hard to implement. Since loot tables are on an RNG, it could be difficult and possibly detrimental to game play to speed the RNG past the point of a death animation.

[Dragon Sol]

Anything worthless, as in well below their wealth range, meaning they would probably have no interested in picking it up. If you want to be smart about it, perhaps depending on the player's combat level or their total wealth, otherwise, just in general, anything below like 1K would be considered as junk items.

 

Yes, there is a huge space for different death animations all depending on the familiar. They could either all be different, or all have one similar death outcome (like their spirit returning into the spirit realm).