When Random Isn't Random

I believe what BumblingB said might be true. I noticed myself that some weapons drop frequently in certain Areas/ Instances. So it's not only likelyhood but also predetermined what can actually drop.

It is really weird though that you have been "unlucky" since 2011 !!! If you're not replaying the same missions over and over (in which there just might be no 1H/ DW/ DP/ MA drops) then this is really strange.

Eventually you get lucky, but eventually is a long time.

While this is all true and sure by random there is a player at 114 that's never had a single item they can use drop, because random says it can happen... but should it be that way? Does random make the game more fun if one player gets 100% usable items another another gets none, who had more fun?

Said it years ago, but will say it again, Random Number Generators have no place in an MMO if you want happy players having fun. pseudo random takes a minimal amount of extra effort and removes those outliers. It's probably less of an issue here, but I remember in EQ2 some items just didn't drop ever on some servers, because RNG is RNG. You could be the only guild on a server able to kill a boss, kill it every lockout for a year, no drop. Not indicative of fun.

OK, I just leveled up a handblaster user. Just reached level 30(with still 2 more leveling missions to go) and the total number of handblasters that have dropped: 1. Kind of strange considering on my others alts and my main HB seems to drop if not at the highest rate, close to it.

Been running alerts and challenges and still no HB drops. Just ran Area 51 HA and got:

Green Brawling-4.6 DPS better than what I have now

Blue 2 Handed-20.8dps better than what I have not to mention the far better stats overall.

Blue DP-20.8dps better

Random is not random. How can I level up a character and get them to 30 and run challenges and alerts with not one single hand blaster dropping.

Ran Smallville. 3 blue weapons: Staff, 1H, Rifle. All with far better stats than I have. Still no HB.

They really need to tweak the loot system in a way the chances become slightly higher to get a weapon your character can use.
Or at least introduce something similar to the lockbox system: say after a certain amount of playtime a usable weapon will automatically drop in combat, so you will never have bad luck for too long.

So if i roll a dice 10 times and never roll a 6 random is not random?

RNG makes MMOs what they are if you dont like it there are single player games that give you weapons or moves as setpieces

I never knew this had a name, RNG.......you da real villian!

You're comparing apples to Chevrolet here. When you're physically rolling 2 die, it's completely random but we're not talking about 2 physical die here are we? No. We're talking about computer programming. If random is indeed random then how do you explain running over 100 missions and not having 1 single HB drop? And there's proof it's a programming issue. Look at collections. If every drop in this game is random, then all collection pieces would fall at the same rate, right? But we know they don't. The Superboy Plaque Rubbing, Class A, Victor Zsasz's shirt, Spork, etc fall at a much different rate than, say, Besselo Blvd or Strikers Island match book. If you're a DP user, DP will drop at an insanely rare rate. 1H, same. Believe me, I have over 4 years experience playing this game and it's been the same with each and every one of them. Right now I get rifle falling like raindrops in a hurricane(I literally get at least one drop every challenge, duo, and alert) but if I were a rifle user, they'd never drop. Can't explain that away as random. I've used every single weapon in this game, leveled every one to 30 and beyond and it's all the same. Whatever one I'm specced to rarely if ever drops. So you can snark all you want but your analogy is so far off base that it's sad.

Which is why I think Spytle's announcement on reconfiguring loot drops is pretty amazing. It's going to build some choice into the equation, which I believe is going to make a ton of people happy!

I went on my third 0/15 purple drop run this week after reset. Unfortunately, when I did get a purple it was a 2-Hander that I neither needed, nor wanted. It is definitely frustrating as it is now. After running and resetting content four times this week, I haven't seen an armor piece. Being nearly 2 months into the DLC's release, I really would have hoped to gear out at least my Healer side. As it stand, neither DPS or Healer roles have the gear they need.

But change is in the works, so patience is required. Random may not care about us, but at least the developers do!

Just so you know, a dice can't be perfectly random due to the uneven weight of the sides. It can be close enough for people to spend millions of dollars to gamble on them, but they aren't perfectly random.

In theory, a computer program would be more random due to an equation. Also, keep in mind how large and precise the number is where it has to be rounded to the nearest whole number.

The devs do weight the items. They mentioned that in the recent loot thread. But it is still random as proof of the poor soul that went a really long time w/o a 100/101 drop. Also keep in mind, this isn't a casino. You actually have a higher probability of getting something, than using real dice in a casino.

In simple, it's random, but also weighted.

There's RNG and then there is "intelligent RNG". Nearly all RPG games use intelligent RNG to reduce bad luck streaks and increase the fun factor. Here we seem to have the opposite.

I think the programming in general is off. Running these challenges, duos, and alerts it's not often I get anything I can use either better gear, styles, or weapons. When I do get a style I don't have, it's bound to a role I am not. What's worse is that we can't trade most blues. I salvage them but I have so many simple and complex materials that they're taking up more space than they're worth in my bank. I go through these things sometimes and end up with basically zero loot for my character. Even some of the stuff that comes out of the reward boxes I can't use. Yesterday in the Area 51 HA I did get the Barbarian Belt which is strange because I've never gotten Barbarian to drop there let alone the ubër rare belt. I've only seen that drop at the Metro train station on the villain side from Spearmaidens.

Yeah, they said he/she an 0/19 drop rate. I am pretty sure I got to 0/18 that first week (I do mix in Alt runs, so I could be miscounting). Since then I've had three 0/12 runs or higher. When you do get stuck in a pattern like that, it doesn't feel random. I guess technically it still is. And worse, when a pattern like that gets broken by two neck pieces in a row, you technically are in even worse shape -- like a 1 for 25-30 ratio.

But improvements are on the way, so we've got that going for us.

Got 3 waists. I bought the style, as a I mostly run the raids once a week.

Reason is simple. Replay badges. They want you to buy replay badges and people do, by the bunches.

Look at it this way.....you could get nothing.

We will have to see how it works. Choice is fine, reduced bad luck streaks, too.
Unfortunately the weighting won't be changed. aaannd it will not affect the whole game, only the next DLC(s)