Thanks for your response, The One. I'll answer a few specifics you mentioned, but let answer the 2 basic issues you raise first.
In essence your main problem with my analysis is the issue of what is easy and hard computations. It seem some things I claim are simple, yet very similar things I claim to be difficult. This is not hard to explain. Quite simply, some things are quicker/easier for a computer to do 1 way then another.
For example, it's much easier/quicker for a system to generate a random number within a very small range, {I.E. the 25.5-51 dmg on a Korss 400(L)+A104 w/ 10/10 stats (or 51-102 if crit=yes)} instead of, say, determining when your last depo was, what your avg. depos are, what luck cycle your ava is in atm, whether globals are allowed in that area atm, and all the other factors the paranoid want to ascribe to their chances.
Creating random numbers is quite fast and easy for a system to do. Also, don't forget that Calypso, CND and CP are separated into multiple servers. All this hard work is not thrust upon one single system.
But even then, lag can occur can too many avatars occupy a given server.
Your other main problem is that I say MA has no control over the game, yet they
must if they are to make money.
The answer, again, is the casino mentality.
In casinos, there are pit bosses to make sure there is no cheating. But they know that in the long run, their blackjack tables will statistically return $xxx per/ $x,xxx bet on it over the course of a typical day. They also know that a certain set of slot machines will return xx% per $xx spent, even after counting the "jackpot" that's timed to go off when the system reaches a set range of cash.
So, yes the casino knows that they will make $xx but they don't care who wins or who loses or how much they win or lose.
So it is with Entropia.
- They don't care who globals
- They don't care who hofs
- They don't care who makes money
- They don't care who loses their shirt
- They don't care whether your last run was profitable or not
- They don't care
They don't care that Pham made money, or Pinky, or Skalman, or anybody. They don't care that Mags lost enough to buy a car, or some other bloke lost $50K.
In the end, the game is set up so that MA will make their xx% money at the end of the day. How the rest of it flows or lands is not their concern.
Consider this: If MA's system were so personal, how much staff would they have to hire to follow everyone around (invisibly of course). And how would the loot be calculated for folks playing during during off hours, or when Sweden is "on summer vacation"?
Frankly, having a system designed for personal control of loot distribution would be much more labor/system intensive then any rng insensitive system could be.
Also, if they wanted a system that could control how much loot each player got, then how could they possibly control resellers, or event marketers, or hairstylists, or any of the many other ways folks can earn ped ingame outside of the "big 3"?
I believe that brings us to the loot issue of control.
Obviously this is where MA does control the game. They decide what items are capable of dropping. The system doesn't just stop looting bear harnesses for no reason at all. Those items don't currently drop
MA controls
- What drops, from what type of mob, and how many
- What ores/enmatters and found and where
- What BPs drop, and how many
These 3 "entry points" let MA control what items are "in play". (Notice I didn't say "when". Again MA doesn't care if the system picks the 1 bear harness in the loot database to drop today, or next week. Well, actually, they can influence the timing, such as the large Isis drop occurring during this convention. But a "button" is not pushed when the right person hunts the right mob.) However, MA does NOT control how we use those items, or how much we pay for them.
Proof:
The egg. Jon's purchase and placement of that item on CND has really put a wrench on what MA wanted to do with that part of the storyline.
And egg boy could have invested that ped wisely and made serious cash. Instead he gambled big and lost.
So, yes, the game is fairly simple (as far as MMORPGs go) and quite open. Ma controls what items are "in play", but what we do with them is our business.
Now let's see if I can answer certain specifics not already covered. I won't discuss the grammatical critiques you have, as I can basically agree with with them.
to "keep up with each individual session" would mean, in programming terms of course, to calculate a (one) "number", i call it the "luck factor", a result of a predefined "formula", every x seconds (or minutes), for every avatar... that is not too much for a system that already generates/calculates several "numbers" for every shoot (action) made within EU...
even if generating real time "numbers" for an unlimited amount of mobs in EU would be way harder (in programming terms) then assigning a "luck factor", every (lets say) 5 minutes, for a limited amount of avatars acting on EU at a given time...
1st, why would you possibly generate ever changing "luck factors"? What would that do to improve game performance or speed? Basic random numbers would do the exact same thing easier and with
much less system stress.
Also, this "luck factor" would have to be a complex calculation of what I'm hunting, where and when.
I've had bad luck/good luck at the exact same time in the exact same location. Longu beach south of Twin. One day the sabas were looting great and the longu were looting very poorly. Guess which mob I quickly started avoiding? Another day, the situation was reversed, and I happily hunted longu and avoided sabas.
As for whether loot is calculated at the moment of mob spawning or during the looting process, I admit there is good argument either way.
However, can you tell me why it takes so long for mining claims or crafting results to come up, yet hunting loot seems to happen almost instantly? If loot is calculated the moment of looting (we can't assume loot is decided during the fight, since the outcome isn't guaranteed) why do these other actions take so damn long?
My guess is that the nature of mining/crafting doesn't allow loot batches to be predetermined. They have no way to know if I'm crafting basic filters on qty on condition, yet the loot changes quite a lot depending on the settings. The same is true with mining. Am I amped or not?
and what about the mobs that are looted in 1 month (or 6) from spawning?... how could the "dynamic" of the loot pool settle that delay?...
Actually, I think that helps my case, not hurt it. As I've mentioned before, I've often gone into far back places and quickly globalled. I've often got the impression I was picking up "left over" loot.
I must assume it's also possible for MA to remove items from the loot database so they are no longer available from then on.
Remember what happens to items left "dropped" during VUs and mini patches? Often they are removed. A purging occurs. The same occurs to mobs. I've been in places when the system had to be restarted. Upon logging back in, the mob count & location is quite different, even within my radar range. In short, that server flushed the mobs (and anything connected to them ) and had to "repopulate".
In conclusion
your (initial) post is a very nice presentation for EU ,witch, btw, i would expect to read in one of MA's official previews/reviews (that makes me wonder: what if...?),
You better not be trying to insinuate what it sounds like.
and witch still misses to explain some of the "hot issues" that all of us are experiencing every day... how about some "minor" details... such as the "ever lucky" ones that are always able to pick the right mob from the "random" herd... over and over...
You mean like the ones who seem always lucky at blackjack or roulette? Or like the way I went from a lousy hunt to looting a +200 item just by changing what I hunted? Luck is luck, mate. It doesn't require some "generated luck factor".
a slighty alteration to your last phrase and we have the truth:
Because of what and how much MA allows to be looted, this game is really in their control... witch, given the fact that they are "in business to make money" is normal and after all isn't such a bad thing... for as long as they would keep those "hot issues" fair and decent...
I have no problem with this. As I said, MA is indeed in control of what drops. They simply aren't in control with what we do with it once it does.
I looted an ESI worth 1k Peds. I could've kept it, used it to sell some skills, buy a ep-41, a madd IV+Beast, or maybe some 5Bs.
The choice of what to do with that item was mine, not MAs, and my choices influence my results.
Many think MA gave that ruga hof to Dub. How would they have known Dub would win that item in an auction, invest in chipping skills, and run though known ruga fields?
Or do they mean that they would've done that for whoever bought "Bessie"?
Either way, it don't sound too personal. Sounds kinda random.
(unless my loot sucks in which case you guys do to 
