Also, would it be worth rewriting such that the "death" check occurs first (and if not dead, then just allow the throwing), and the class loop is not checked unless Instigator is dead? 

Okay - mind you that this would be my first attempt at writing UnrealScript stuff. And I haven't actually put this into anything and tried to compile it ... but ... Dru and I discussed in PMs the whole idea of getting just AMs to stop dropping artifacts on death. As you'll see, there are comments in the code containing questions that, if you know the answers to, I'd like to know. Where this code would go into place is basically into any artifact that you wouldn't want to spill out of an AM when they died. This code should (if I wrote it anywhere near correctly) allow all other classes to throw on death the artifact in question. It should also allow an AM to toss the artifact while still alive. The gotchas are probably many - one of which that just occurred to me: If you wanted to allow an AM to drop on death an artifact they picked up (IE, they threw the one they started with, but then picked up the same one later), this wouldn't allow that. Please review and critique. I'm learning here ... Code:

function DropFrom(vector StartLocation)
{
	local int x;
	local bool ok;
	local RPGStatsInv StatsInv;

	if (bActive)
		GotoState('');

// All this is for finding out if the class of the player is AM.
	StatsInv = RPGStatsInv(Instigator.FindInventoryType(class'RPGStatsInv'));
	if(StatsInv != None)
		for (x = 0; x < StatsInv.Data.Abilities.length && !ok; x++)
			if (statsInv.Data.Abilities[x] == class'ClassAdrenalineMaster')
				ok = True;

// Now, depending on state of player and class:
	if (Instigator.Health <= 0 && ok)
	{
		Destroy();
// If we're talking dead people, do we really need this?  It depends on
// what "NextItem" really means ... if it's just changing the active
// item for a living person, then we don't need this.  And there's a part of
// me that seriously wants to see this *before* Destroy() - must be a hold
// over from my LPC days.
		Instigator.NextItem();
	}
	else
	{
// If "tossed", NextItem is called in TossArtifact function, BUT:
// if "NextItem" needed for dead people, it's needed somewhere here.
// However, that may be handled in "Super.DropFrom".  Or, would this
// possibly result in only the active item being dropped from non-
// adrens?
		Super.DropFrom(StartLocation);
	}
}

 

Dru mentioned that this solution is a bit inflexible - it can cause problems for folks that wish to extend his code. I would guess the exact reason for that is the limitations of UnrealScript's inheritance (which I haven't quite gotten a grip on, but on some level understand)? Is it because they'd be unable to reference Mysterial's version of the artifact while using/referencing any part of Dru's mod (if Dru's mod used artifact classes that contained the above code snippet)? 

var config bool bAllowDrops;

bAllowDrops=false

if(!bAllowDrops)

Would it be possible to set up the RPG INI to use either Dru's version of a particular artifact, or Mysterial's? I would think so IIRC what I've seen in the INI. Server owners could still mix and match, right? It's just the "extenders" that are going to run into problems? 

I have only had a quick scan through what you have suggested, but it all looks quite reasonable. in the bit where you check if (bActive), I would set bActive to be false. I would also check for DruidArtifactLoaded rather than ClassAdrenalineMaster But it looks ok to me. 

Not sure what Dru is getting at here. 

Adn what's this about inheritance limitations? 

Since LA's are an additional class do they even need to get the default artifacts? You could give them an extended version that youve modified to prevent dropping (could even make an abstract class that they all extended from if you needed to).