Remember this is what determines how these results are connected to each other, filtered, etc. Some of these columns already exist (and are best re-used to save on space and performance) so will be 'repurposed' for Monsters. Have a look around on similar sites like Arreat or archived Amazon Basin and let me know if you think there are any other types of information we could include for each Monster entry - remember the information must be easy to source and contribute in a standardised format like the rest of the contributions we've seen so far.
- Name of the Monster (obviously)
- Meta-type - I was thinking three choices here... 'Monster', 'Super Unique' and 'Boss'. This 'Bosses' meta-type would include superuniques like Griswold, Nihlathak, etc. that are considered 'Bosses' on Arreat Summit, as well as the usual Act Bosses and Ubers.
- Monster type - This would be a choice between Animal, Undead, and Demon. Besides filtering would allow some automatic relations/future tooling for item damage types in some way.
- Act - This would be a nice secondary means of grouping/categorisation that makes sense to new and old players alike. So like, the most commonly associated Act of this monster. (Scarabs, Act II, Fallen, Act I, etc.)
- Variants - Monsters sharing the same model and spell sets. Kind of how 'base' variants of uniques are displayed now for items, and vice versa.
- Base Stats - These would be several different fields allowing for input of Level, XP given, HP, Attacks etc. etc. etc. (as per Arreat tables) and an instant 'switch' on each page would allow you to switch between the different difficulties' stats. Or would it be better to have three separate entries for each monster, one for each difficulty?
- Superunique Modifiers - For known super uniques only (think Rakanishu for example) things like 'Lightning Enchanted' and 'Extra Fast'. Basically any of the unique modifiers that spawn on this superunique.
- Found in Zone - For known super uniques/very common appearances of monsters in specific map zones. For example, Rakanishu always spawning in Stony Field or Lord De Seis in the Chaos Sanctuary. This would allow for some cool auto-relations to be built between the two categories.
- Treasure Class - For superuniques only (since they have static TC values as they always spawn in the zame alvl for each difficulty).
So guys, anything else you think would be worthy of a space in the database for monsters? Try to think wide about this - is there any data that would pair up well with other parts of the site, both existing and planned?
Teebling
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