Seriously, VW loot system..come on.

[Arcon]

Fun fact for those of you who don't know how the random/lot system works: It's easily controllable and you can hit 900+ lots any time you want without any third party programs.

That's my first time hearing this. I find it hard to believe SE would do something that stupid. How exactly does that work?

[Greatguardian]

That's my first time hearing this. I find it hard to believe SE would do something that stupid. How exactly does that work?

It's a server load saving measure, I'd imagine. Instead of asking the server to generate tons of random numbers (since people /random and lot all the time), your client just sends a ping to the server and the server sends a number back based on when that ping is received. That time is just a measure of the Vanadiel Minute. Each VD Minute can be split 1000 ways. If the server receives your ping at the very start of a new VD minute, you'll roll a 999. If the server receives your ping at the end of a VD minute, you roll a 0. Everything in between is returned linearly.

There's slight variation based on internet connection speed (speed of light isn't instant, etc), since the number returned is based on when the server receives the ping rather than when the ping is sent, but that's very minor in most cases unless you're living in a country with fairly poor network infrastructure.

This was all figured out years ago. It's why you can also repeatedly generate the same number (or extremely close to it, variations due to network travel) if you set up a script to /random at set intervals corresponding to the length of a VD minute.

It takes a bit of skill to pull off, so I'm not really worried about people figuring it out. I rarely ever use this trick, it's generally not worth the effort. It's neat to know, though. I think it's fairly ingenious from an efficiency standpoint.

[Arcon]

It's a server load saving measure, I'd imagine. Instead of asking the server to generate tons of random numbers (since people /random and lot all the time), your client just sends a ping to the server and the server sends a number back based on when that ping is received. That time is just a measure of the Vanadiel Minute. Each VD Minute can be split 1000 ways. If the server receives your ping at the very start of a new VD minute, you'll roll a 999. If the server receives your ping at the end of a VD minute, you roll a 0. Everything in between is returned linearly.

I'm guessing they changed that then. I'm still having a hard time believing it ever worked like this. I just did a test run and it received /random lots pretty evenly distributed from 0 to 999. Even if that's all due to connection lag (which should be minmal with a fast and responsive wired broadband connection like mine), it still means there's no way to influence it manually.

I think it's fairly ingenious from an efficiency standpoint.

Not sure if I'd call it ingenious. If they indeed implemented a linearly cycling system like that it should simply be based on milliseconds with a predetermined (random) permutation, the connection lag would still make it impossible to time it properly and it would be, for all intents and purposes, random. To be ingenious it should be something that people couldn't influence manually. And I don't think lotting occurs often enough for it to be an issue anyway.