Ponderings on Monster Drops

[Ces]

I’ve been thinking on the current and future state of the game (who doesn’t?) for a while, and I thought I should share some of my musings with you. In case something is usable. This post is about monster drops in particular.

Monsters selectively picking up drops?
As it is now some monsters steal drops in their vicinity, seemingly without regard to the item type of the drop. Is it possible and/or wanted to let the monsters only pick up drops—that is, items on the ground—of certain types?

• The monster curiously investigates every drop it is aware of, if it’s suitable it picks it up
• The monster spontaneously knows which drops are suitable and only then approaches and picks them up

For instance, the more sentient monsters could pick up weapons and armour, while the gluttons could pick up anything remotely eatable. The Stumpies could be picking up logs and the Mouboos could scavenge the ground for any and all vegetable. (Side notes: To “annoy” and “indulge” harvesters/collectors a tiny bit, perhaps the Stumpies could be aggressive towards lumberjacks, and the Mouboos could be eating away the fields of the farmers.)

More realistic monster drops
This topic has almost been beaten to death already. TMW doesn’t really have it at the moment, TMW will have it in the future. So I’ll keep myself short.

I believe it would be quite doable already to change most—if not all—of the monster drops to something more appropriate. A few examples of my thinking (though I introduce a few items not already in-game).

• Shroom: Small mushroom, Shroom spike, Shroom cap
• Evil mushroom: Small mushroom, Small toadstool, Mushroom cap
• Scorpion: Scorpion stinger, Scorpion carapace, Scorpion pincers, Bug leg
• Red scorpion: Red scorpion stinger, Red scorpion carapace, Red scorpion pincers, Bug leg
• Black scorpion: Scorpion stinger, Black scorpion carapace, Black scorpion pincers, Bug leg
• Mouboo: Mouboo skin/wool, [Mouboo|Animal|Large|Fresh] meat

But the more the merrier, especially once TMW has crafting in place. (Side notes: I’m thinking here that poison might be extracted from, for instance, the Small toadstools and the scorpion stingers—especially the red ones. Also, the Mushroom cap and the Shroom cap could be prerequisites for creating the Mush hat and Shroom hat respectively.)