What's the Most Efficient Way to Program This?

[TheShyGuy]

*Ehh sorry for repeating what you want. I was a bit confused about what you were describing...
*I wrote this in notepad. I wrote it as I was thinking about the solution....you'll see if you open the spoiler.
*there are probably quite a bit of grammar and spelling mistakes....Im sorry lol.

wall O text

Spoiler

Ok... From what I've read, Koh, you're looking for a way to define a variety of an item (eg.polished or damaged knife) that is randomly chosen when its base type is dropped (a knife).

problem: easily and efficiently defining and maybe storing a variety of an item

-Weapons are defined by stats, modifiers and random bonuses.

-no need to derive anything, no extra functionality or data is added.
-the only difference between a weapon variety (or weapon for that matter) are stats, modifers, and bonuses
-random bonuses can be generated by GameMaker. No need to store random values.
-so a weapon variety is now defined by altered stats and modfiers
-So how do you define and store a different type of weapon (polished knife)?
-It's all data
-why not store them in a file?

*The functionality and implementation for a knife or weapon is defined in GameMaker by code.
*The stats and modifiers which define a sub type of a weapon are stored in files.

Example:

Code:

*FileName: Knife Types.txt

Number Of Types = 3

//defines base stats
Base Weapon Name = Knife

//Stats
Power = 5
Fort:=3
....
...
Defense = 0

//loop for the total number of weapon types to read in all types
Name = Plain

//modifiers : don't really have to define this i guess, but i threw it in just in case
Power Modifier :1
Fort Modifier : 1
...
...
Defense Modifier : 1
//-----------------end of one loop iteration

Name = Polished

//modifiers : Unless the base stats can change overtime, you could just redefine the stat value.
//Since theyre both constant.
Power Modifier : 2 (5 * 2 = 10)
Fort Modifer : 1.5
...
...
Defense Modifier : 0

//-----------------end of loop 2

Name = Damaged

Power Modifier : 0.7
Fort Modifer : 0.3
...
...
Defense Modifier : 0

//--------------------end of loop------All types shouldve been read in

That takes care of storing different (weapon) types. No more arrays an whatever.
This also means that you don't waste in-game memory.

....

If you're unsure about how to choose a random item:
-store the number of types of an item (3 for the knife).
-when randomly choosing for a type, have 3 be the maximum index possible.

-How you actually access the data in the file is up to you. You can read it in
at the moment of drop if you can.... Or you could go down the
array implementation again. Except everything will be better organized.
Simply define a class that defines all possible modifiers (power, fort,defense).

Code:

class WeaponModifers
{
    //damaged , polished
    string Name;

    int PowerModifier;
    int FortModifier:
    ....
    int Defense Modifier;
}

Then create an array of these for each type of weapon at level load time or whenever.

Code:

WeaponModifiers[] knifeTypes = ReadAllTypesFromFile("Knife Types.txt");
WeaponModifiers[] ScimitarTypes = ReadAllTypesFromFile("Scimitar Types.txt");
....
...

This is similar to the 2D array way you posted about, but it's pretty clear what type of weapons you're using.

hmmmmm....You can probably take this a step further.....But I already wrote a wall of text - and I have zero knowledge of Gamemaker and its limits. If anything is confusing, just ask.

Something To Think About:

-Binary Data instead of pure text:
-->PRO: Data becomes more compact and should be faster to read in. This means, reading in stats can be done right before drop and avoid arrays altogether.
-->CON If you don't have experience looking at raw binary data or hex values, creating files would be confusing. -If you do it by hand. (Make a small program to read/write files)

Edit:
-If you're wondering how to save a "special" weapon that the player has, you can always just store the special weapon's index and random bonuses. Then when you load the player's inventory of weapons, just re-read in the data file containing the weapon's types and load the corresponding sub type. Then read in the stored bonus.