Gradual Reduction in MF Effectiveness

[gekko]

I'm talking about a failure in the random number generator. There need not be any knowledge of which items have sets/uniques. It would be a result of a co-variance between successive random numbers that causes certain combinations of numbers to be more likely than others as time goes on.

This still doesn't apply here.

We're discussing whether or not MF decreases in effectiveness over time. For the purpose of deciding how often the quality level of an item is chosen to be "unique" or "set," those double or tripple blue or yellow items *were chosen to be unique or set.* Let me repeat that. If the final few steps were somehow bypassed or ignored, those items were not blues or yellows -- they were sets or uniques. The step of changing their quality from unique or set to magic or rare has nothing the least bit random about it -- if one of very specific conditions are/are not met, the item spawns as an increased durability magic/rare item.

Consider this: roll a 6 sided die 100 times. If you roll a 5, change it to a 1. Now count the number of times you rolled 1, 2, 3 or 4 compared to how many times you rolled 5 or 6. BUT count the 5's you changed to 1's as 1's. In other words, you will have zero 5's, and (roughly) twice as many 1's as any other number. According to the stats you just collected, your die must be weighted somewhere -- you'll have rolled 5 or 6 only about 1/6 of the time (assuming equal distribution and such). If you had counted the numbers you changed as 5's, you should record roughly a 2/6 chance of rolling a 5 or a 6.

While it IS possible to have a failure in the random number generator (after all, how can a computer choose a totally random number... for that matter, how can a human choose a totally random number?), that doesn't change the fact that increased durability blue/yellow items must be counted as unique/set drops for the numbers to be meaningfull. Because as far as the game is concerned, they WERE chosen to be unique/set.

gekko