[Radek]

Vanishing items: an investigation

Let us make a few experiments first. Let us suppose that we have a game, saved in front of a city gates, with a character A. The character A has some money (for example 100 gold) and some stackable items (for example 6 healing potions). Let us suppose that we also have a character B in the town inn. The character B has some free space in his inventory, he has no healing potions (or a similar stackable items used by A during experiments) and no money.

Experiment 1:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Give B the healing potions in the inn.
d) Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's inventory.
Result: B has no healing potions. The potions are lost.

Experiment 2:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party, leave the inn.
c) Give B the healing potions in the town.
d) Return to the inn, remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
d) Check B's inventory.
Result: B has no healing potions. The potions are lost.

Experiment 3:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Give B the healing potions in the inn. Open B's inventory and close it without doing anything with the inventory. Do not even move your mouse across the inventory. You will see the healing potions in B's inventory.
d) Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's inventory.
Result: B has 6 healing potions.

Experiment 4:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Give B the haling potions in the inn. Leave the inn. Open B's inventory in the town and close it without doing anything with the inventory. Return to the inn.
d) Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's inventory.
Result: B has 6 healing potions.

Experiment 5:
Do the same as in the 4th experiment but give the potions in the town instead of in the inn.
Result: B has 6 healing potions.

Experiment 6:
a) Split the healing potions so that A has 3 + 3 healing potions. Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Give B 3 healing potions. Open B's inventory. You will see 3 healing potions. Close B's inventory.
d) Give B next 3 healing potions. Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's inventory:
Result: B has 3 healing potions. The second 3 potions are lost.

Experiment 7:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Give B the healing potions in the inn.
d) Take B outside the town. Return to the inn. Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's inventory.
Result: B has 6 healing potions.

Experiment 8:
Do the same as in the 7th experiment but give the potions in the town instead of in the inn.
Result: B has 6 healing potions.

Experiment 9:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Poll money by means of B.
d) Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's money.
Result: B has no money. All money polled by B are lost.

Experiment 10:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Poll money by means of B. At the end of polling, open B's inventory and close it.
d) Remove B from the party, then add B to the party again.
e) Check B's money.
Result: B has all money he has polled.

Experiment 11:
a) Enter the town, then enter the inn.
b) Add B to the party.
c) Poll money by means of B. During the polling, open A's inventory and close it.
Result: No further polling is possible. A has no money after opening his inventory. Removing and adding A to the party does not generate any money.

Summary:
1. It's the opening of the new owner's inventory that makes the items, traded in the town or in the inn, stable. Opening the inventory is enough, no additional action is needed.
2. Leaving the town makes the items stable as well.
3. If you forget to open the new owner's inventory after giving him a new item in the town or in the inn, then you lose the item on removing the new owner from the party. This way, you can lose not only ordinary items but also vital items like the Signet Ring, the Mask of Evil or the Mavin Sword. All this has been seen already [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Conclusions:
1. You can trade items in the town or even in the inn safely but you must never forget checking inventories of the new owners after the trading. Another possibility is leaving the town and returning.
2. You can speed up generating money in the inn considerably. The trick consists in repeated stabilizing of the polled money by opening the collector's inventory. Let us suppose that you start with a character A - the "generator" and a character B - the "collector":
a) Poll money by B a few times.
b) Open B's inventory. This makes the generated money real. Since now, B will be the "generator" and A will be the "collector".
c) Poll money by A a few times.
b) Open A's inventory. This makes the generated money real. Since now, A will be the "generator" and B will be the "collector".
e) Poll money by B a few times.
f) And so on. Note that the amount of money polled by the collector increases every time when A and B exchange their roles. The new collector will poll all money generated so far with every polling round.