Find Gold

The Event

Trigger:

• Forest special event (100 weight)
• Travel event between cities (20 weight)
• Random encounter (no requirements)

Message:

• "`^Fortune smiles on you and you find [X] gold!`0"
• Single message, no choices
• Gold automatically added to inventory
• Debug log: "found [X] gold in the dirt"

Gold Amount Calculation

Formula:

• Gold = player level × random(mingold, maxgold)
• Default mingold: 10 (configurable 0-50)
• Default maxgold: 50 (configurable 20-150)
• Example (Level 10, defaults): 10 × 10-50 = 100-500 gold

Scaling by Level:

• Level 1: 10-50 gold
• Level 5: 50-250 gold
• Level 10: 100-500 gold
• Level 15: 150-750 gold
• Level 20: 200-1000 gold

Admin Configuration Impact:

• Generous server (mingold=20, maxgold=100): Level 10 = 200-1000 gold
• Stingy server (mingold=5, maxgold=25): Level 10 = 50-250 gold
• Wide variance server (mingold=1, maxgold=150): Level 10 = 10-1500 gold

Event Weight

Forest Weight: 100:

• Standard baseline weight (many events use 100)
• Relatively common encounter
• Competes with other forest specials equally

Travel Weight: 20:

• Lower weight = less frequent
• 5× rarer during travel than forest
• Still possible but uncommon bonus

Strategy

Player Actions:

• None - completely passive event
• No choices to optimize
• No way to increase/decrease occurrence
• Pure RNG lottery

Value Assessment:

• Low-level players: Meaningful gold boost (10-50 gold matters)
• Mid-level players: Nice bonus (100-500 gold helpful)
• High-level players: Minor gain (gold becomes less valuable late game)

Comparison to Other Gold Events

Similar Forest Events:

• Find Gem: Same structure, finds gems instead of gold
• Find Ring: Choice-based, risk/reward (charm OR HP loss)
• Beggar: Give/deny gold, karma outcomes

Find Gold Advantages:

• No risk (can't lose anything)
• No decision paralysis (automatic)
• No wrong choice (no way to fail)
• Fast (single message, instant continue)

Find Gold Disadvantages:

• No agency (boring, no player skill)
• No storytelling (one-line message)
• No interesting outcomes (just +gold)
• Forgettable (nothing memorable happens)

Lore Questions

Unanswered Mysteries:

• Why is gold lying in the dirt?
• Who lost it?
• Why hasn't someone else found it?
• Is it cursed? (Spoiler: no)
• Should you report it to authorities? (Spoiler: you pocket it immediately)

Flavor Text Absence:

• No description of HOW you find it
• No explanation of WHERE in dirt
• No characterization of gold (coins? nuggets? bills?)
• Just: "you find [X] gold" (very direct)

Admin Configuration

Settings:

• mingold: Minimum gold to find (multiplied by level), range 0-50, default 10
• maxgold: Maximum gold to find (multiplied by level), range 20-150, default 50

Balancing Considerations:

• High values = inflation (too much gold entering economy)
• Low values = irrelevant (players ignore small gains)
• Wide range (min=1, max=150) = exciting variance but unpredictable
• Narrow range (min=45, max=55) = consistent but boring

Technical Details

Hook Integration:

• Forest hook: return 100 (event weight)
• Travel hook: return 20 (event weight)
• No other hooks (minimal integration)

Code Simplicity:

• Entire event: 4 lines of code
• Calculate min/max based on level + settings
• Random gold = e_rand(min, max)
• Add to session['user']['gold']
• Output message + debuglog
• One of simplest modules in codebase

Limitations

• No Player Choice: Completely passive, zero interaction
• No Story: One-line message, no flavor, no lore
• Inflation Risk: If too generous, floods economy with gold
• Boring: Nothing interesting happens
• No Memorability: Instantly forgettable encounter