Gambling

[Crystalion]

,Aug 6 2004, 01:47 AM] AFAIK prices do not alter because of exceptional/elite versions.

They do and they don't, depending on the sense in which you mean "prices alter". If you look up some old thread on gambling pricing (that isn't out of date due to changes) you'll probably find what I'm referring to: when the ilvl/qlvl increases enough to allow the exc/elite versions to be possible, the gamble price (cost) gets a bump up. (They don't alter in the sense of tipping you off to whether an item *is* exc/elite).

This sometimes results in a "lower" base item gamble price in excess of the next base item(s?), which themselves are not yet possible to bump up (to exc/elite).

Also, you mentioned qlvl above, qlvl or item quality level is used to help determine if a drop is possible when a unique is selected to drop. I don't understand why this was mentioned for gambling :S

When one summarizes gambling info I make the presumption the info is for consumption by gamblers... a common desire of gamblers is to increase their odds of particular affixes and to achieve this it might be worth mentioning the way in which qlvl detracts from ilvl in arriving at alvl (except for magic_level > 0 bases). In lay terms, you'll sometimes find it "better" (in some sense) to limit your gambling to the lower base items.

Was I any clearer this time, or was that not what I mentioned that was confusing? Perhaps the issue of killing uniques? You can find threads documenting the "loss" of uniques to game drops and to gambling caused by gambling. The non-technical quickie advice would be to only gamble in a fresh game (and then don't play in that game) and to *always* buy every base item of the type(s) you are seeking to get a unique during your gambling session. It is probably true that the effect is small in practice, but eliminating the unfavorable clipping "costs nothing", so why not avoid a tragedy (i.e. getting a hidurare)?