but how do we determine *which* items are lost? This is where the categories come into it.

Each item in the game has a particular item type associated with it. The actual types (categories) are listed below. When we are deciding what items you drop on death, we make a list of all the items you are carrying, sorted by value (high value first). But we may adjust their values in two ways. If the item is not the most valuable item in that category, then we cut its value in half. And whether or not it is the most valuable item in its category, we randomize its value a little bit to mix things up. (To answer your first question explicitly, the cutting-the-value-in-half is not cumulative -- the second- and third- and fouth-most valuable items of one category all have their values halved, not halved and then quartered and then eighthed.)

Now note that we still keep these things in a list sorted by adjusted value -- so its possible to have your two expensive weapons listed first and second, if the value of the second weapon cut in half is still higher than the value of the third item. What I am trying to get at here is that we do not segregate the list based on item type; we only use item type to determine how we adjust the value of the item.

Finally, we go down the list and mark the first # things as dropped, where # is the number of items we have calculated that you are going to drop this death. For instance, if you are level 48, you will drop the first 4-6 items on that list.

The categories of items are:

- melee weapons
- missile weapons
- magic casters (like orbs & wands)
- armor
- clothing
- jewelry
- food
- gems
- components
- mana stones
- crafting ingredients
- parchments & books
- keys
- tradenotes
- miscellaneous

(I've left out a few categories -- like lifestones -- because you aren't likely to be carrying an item of that type.)

And there you have it -- the entire process of item loss on death spelled out in terrible detail. I hope that answered your questions sufficiently."