Nothing from presents this week...

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

I couldn't wait and broke down to open them presents. Got nothing worth mentioning. This is my thinking of how Guild Wars is setup with Nick the traveler's drops.

They have a list that goes like this:

1.) bottle rockets
2.) sparklers
3.) something
4.) something
5.) sparklers (repeats the most common items)
...
598.) Mini Gwen Doll (this might be the only instance of a mini Gwen doll out of a 1000 possible drops before repeating)

Now the thing is that this would effectively limit the number of drops of the Gwen doll and other 'rare' items. I would imagine that the Zkeys work in a similar fashion as well. The thing with Guild Wars is that it's built on SQL and they just updated 4 months ago to MS SQL 2005. They have our chracter data stored in a "BLOB". Everything you get is just like when we play a map.. it's instanced just for us. So.. they really have less control than I thought over how items are instantly generated when opening presents. Instead of our characters being stored in a way like our inventories (relational block data) they are just one massive BLOB string. So they don't check if you have one.. or if you've been duping items.. if you are trying to play the system etc. They don't even have a full time DBA working for them and didn't even know how to code SQL when they started (let alone selected SQL as their database backend) coding for GW.

Anyway, my point is this.. if we did open up presents at the same time.. (not knowing how long the list generator would be or function that determines the order that the drops actually occurr) we increase our chances of getting one. The ideal is the same as when you got a bunch of zkeys to open. The only thing you didn't take into account is the speed at which you open the chest! The list would work for everyone, not just you, so we'd litterally have to open the presents as fast as we could. Otherwise another character might get the 598 instance of the mini Gwen doll before us. Also the possibility exists that we start our present opening at 145.. and with other GW players opening theirs.. we end up at about 415 (still short of a rare prize).

[{Ru}Lord_Slayer]

wow if this isnt a winded post based on frustration of not getting any good items, I dont know what would be then.
With no disrespect to your knowledge of programming and SQL. You are still not a gaming programmer. We all have Theories on how the gifts work but you still do not know how they do it for sure

SO who do you know from arena net Ein. SOme of the statements you made seem like you know exactly how Arena NET RUNS. No full time DBA, They dont have as much control as I thought.. They lol, oh this is great, They didnt even know how to code when they started.Man,you should get a job at Arena net and show them how coding and programming needs to be done.....If you got this info from reading an article please share the link.Im more just busting your balls because your taking your knowledge of programming or sql and saying this is the way it has to be happening because I know something about programming. I have no problems with opinions or theories. Just say, "This is my opinion". DOnt say well I know programming and SQL Sooooooo this is whats happening.

But now that all that is said, I will say that I, having no knowledge of SQL and Programming agree that there is no private instances for opening gifts or Zaishen chest. They give the big reward probably 1 in every 500 gifts or zaishen openings.Thats why you save up gifts and keys so you have a better chance of hitting the lucky number. And you better believe, that that big reward counter is always moving. When we open Zaishen chest. We do not pause. We use key after key as fast as we can until were done. ANd then pick up stuff afterwords. Of course we have 1 person who watches the drops to see if the big reward drop happens. If it does we stop right there and save the rest of ther keys until out next attempted opening.

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

Yes, the statements I made above are from a technical journal. I'm in the middle of doing a research project with a group studying MapReduce on databases. The same technical journal has links within in discussing Guild Wars and makes notes about some of the interviews with Anet staff or the parent company. Now short of you busting my balls on a mute point, if you knew the technology behind what they were using, they are using a function to determine the drops. The "most likely and most feasible method" to code for drops is relatively close to what I'd mentioned. With the dupping over two years ago, you can see much of the code that runs on our machines. That's how knowledgable players were able to take advantage of the test areas within the game to cheat at the coffer of whispers & challenge Mallayx repeatedly. Moreover, that's how some people knew what mini pets would be released by looking at the character hexidecimal readers. You've used these before Slayer, to mod characters or games to play without keys (same concept here). Guild Wars isn't as complicated as I originally thought it was, it's certainly not like WOW or others. Again, and I quote, "This is my thinking" and no we don't know for sure that's how it's done however, if you *know* the underlying architechture, that limits how they can do the drops. That was the point I was making, which doesn't require more detailed explination (other than they don't look at anything on your character.. etc.. they just run a function/routine when doing the drops).

No, I broke down a pretended to open them.. and now I'm convinced I didn't get anything before opening them. So we'll see next week and will not be disappointed if I don't get anything good (that I want). I think we need to still open our presents at the same time next weekend to be sure we increase our chances.

BTW, my coding experience has definitely confirmed the fact that you are a punk.

*Without a doubt!*

[{Ru}Lord_Slayer]

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

Well, you got me on the account you keep in secret on Monday.. but the coding meh.. as long as I know I'm not lying or stretching the truth.. you'll have to take my word for it. I'll have to find the article.. but just offhand you could probably type in DBMS GUILD WARS or DBMS2 GUILD WARS and the articles will come up on Google. I have to finish up the technical paper tonight without much sleep and it'll read like it too. Instead of playing GW Monday, I should have been doing this assignment!

Seriously, the fact that you have used a hexidecimal editor does give you some insight on what I'm talking about. Think about it.. everytime we get an update after logging into GW.. what files did they modify and how? Sure they do encrypt nearly every file; however, think back to when you used the editor.. you probably did see readable characters in the character file you edited. That's exactly how one user could identify all of the 3rd year mini pets. I suspect they did a better job of hiding it for the 4th year mini pets this go around because he was in the forums bragging about finding out (as it was supposed to be a surprise). So.. on top of that.. I want to reassure you that people cannot edit their online GW account. You can use the ingame displays to change how when you were doing the cartographer title the map could show different colors.. things like the after effects can be changed. You can change the skin of your mini pets to look like the ultra rare ones but to everyone else in the game.. you still have a lame gold pig instead of a panda bear. So again, you are still correct that end players cannot modify the actual game itself.. but THEY CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TEST AREAS used by GW. That's how the whole arm braces/Mallayx thing happened with ANET having a town that 'normal' people like you and me couldn't get to. Yet, players modified their maps to display this area and give themselves access to it. This is where several accounts were banned. IF I catch you on Vent I can also kinda explain why GW has trouble controlling the gold sellers. You know on the one hand that if ANET keeps banning accounts the gold sellers keep buying new ones to counter the banned ones. It should also be pointed out that ANET cannot run in game queries for BOTS and other 'patterns' due to the instancing of how the game is designed to operate.

... sorry.. got carried away.

I absolutely must open 1 present this week... otherwise I'd somewhat be lying if I don't actually get 'nothing of value' per my post. See.. I just self justified that!

Do you realize that as of next week between us we will open at least 1 million in Nickolas presents? 200 Nick presents @ 5k each! (at least) That's just unforking believeable.

[{Ru}Lord_Slayer]

Its not so unbeiveable for me being we buy 200 zashen keys a month at 4k each. BUt yeah, its a lot of money

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

Are you still farming the UW?

[{Ru}Lord_Slayer]

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

I need some help with one of the quests.. because my blood washes blood is still not working right..

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

Ok.. I opened 1 present last night and got 5 cotton tail tonics. So.. that's ok.

Why doesn't everyone post what they want to get the MOST from the presents?

I, of course, want a mini pet.. perferably the mini Gwen doll. I wouldn't mind getting the EL cotton tail tonic either or the mini Yakkington. I don't care for the weapons or anything of the sort.. I suppose getting the EL crate of fireworks would be good to trade for something else.

-EIN

[{Ru}Lord_Slayer]

I dont really want anything per day. I guess the mini would be cool. I know Glider wamts something bad from the presents, but ill let her post what that is...

[{Ru}Bubba]

I kinda like the skin on the VDS, but i would probably never use it, the mini yak would be ok i guess.

[glider]

i would want the EL tonic

[{Ru}EINHANDER]

Yeah.. not everyone's got those yet. It certainly has value.. so let's hope someone gets something good next weekend. I'm trying to convince Bubba not to open his until next week.

[{Ru}Bubba]

well i have 15 lol, ill save those and open them along with the 10 from next week