VIP Chest...What do you pull?

While I can’t speak for the exact details of the console server, I’m familiar enough with the codebase to be 100% certain that the chest-opening code on the server (for all versions of the game) is not in anyway connected to information about IP addresses or previous payments.

Not saying there might not be an issue there, but if there is, it would more likely be a very rare corner-case kind of bug to do with the pseudo-random number generator giving out a weird series of values.

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How is the pseudo rng seeded? Is it seeded once when you buy 50 chests vs seeded each time when you buy a chest at a time? And is a millisecond time stamp used in the seeding?

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My understanding is that it is seeded at the start of any server call with a millisecond time stamp based on UTC time (and modified by a salt value uniquely generated for each account on creation).

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@Theicla

You on XB1?

I’m PS4 and my Event chests are fine (No VIP chest access)

Yes, I’m talking about XB1 in this particular case (I also have an iOS mobile account).

@Sirrian Thank you for the info on server calls for RNG seeding. Enjoy glimpsing the magic of how things work under the hood, so to speak. There was a puzzle board match on my console account recently which I intensely regret not capturing a photo of; the gems had fallen into a perfect setup that, with a single match-3, would unleash an absolute maelstrom of total opponent annihilation. I looked at the puzzle and thought, “That’s it, whoever programmed these gameplay algorithms in GoW is a genius.” Thank you so much for creating this wonderful game. :blush:

@UKresistance If I understand what you’ve asking? There may be an indirect, corroborating evidence that 50 chests appear to be seeded only ‘once’ as a whole at the time you purchase it, rather than for each individual chest in the pack of 50. Back when the 1.085 update went live for the XB1 console and the type of chests switched from 1-key-give-3-troops to 1-key-gives-only-1-item, it became possible to click on a 10 chest or 50 chest pack, and on purchase you might immediately gain the console achievement “General: Unlock 50 different troops,” because the multiple chest pull provided enough troops to push you past 50. You’d hear the cheevo pop even whilst the chest loot items were just starting to display.

Now if the question is whether a 50-pack has a more favourable RNG weighting than that given on a single individual chest, Idk of course, but my impression is that it does in general appear to be so.

I find the RNG works differently with an individual chest than a group.

Therefore, I wait to open groups of Keys. I won’t open less than 25 Keys at a time.

You cant say more favorable exactly, just different. I might right a little article on how rng, seed, and salt works in a few days.
Sirian confirmed s lot of what I suspected, that the initial seed is a millisecond time stamp. If I ask more of the right questions, I might get some really informative answers from Mr strange. Such as the standard library function they use for rng, and if they do a bit wise exclusive or against the salt and the seed.

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I looked into it, could see no reason for it. And nothing changed on our end since then.

Gremlins?

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So that is why my account is salty. What is a salt value?

I’ll right up a little article on rng, seed, and salt in a few days.

A simple Google search…

Ask the questions, write the article, take the acclaim!

Be great if it led to a conclusive ‘it is/isn’t more beneficial to open 50 keys at a time’ statement.

Thought I was being paranoid thinking I was having a better time opening groups at a time.

Yeah but what’s a nonce?!

Wikipedia has a search bar too!

Nice, ty! For lasting impact, you could talk about Pepper too, and garner eternal fame by fixing up the woefully inadequate Wikipedia article on that subject:

EDIT: Talia got the word out first :slight_smile:

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Ha it has a different meaning around these parts. Any other condiments going around?

Im now afraid to use my event keys this week when Infernal King is available.

There’s also “spice” in the Hasty Pudding cipher

I’ve never heard of pepper or spice lol. I’m sure it plays the same roll. I’m old and I took cs 20+ years ago.

Never heard Pepper or Spice? Neither did I 'til Wikipedia saith that such cryptographic condiments exist… lol

To return to the subject of chests proper:

Recap: Last week folks were getting traitstones at high frequency out of the VIP chests, rather than troops.

This week I am getting nothing but Runesmith at 100% frequency out of Event chests despite the enticing promise of Gorgotha (I just tried Event chests again today and-- you guessed it-- yet more Runesmith).

A month ago, @wargems also reported getting nothing but Berserker ad nauseum:

So either this console chest isn’t working correctly, or the troop displayed on the “You can win!” thumbnail is always what you’ll get, all the time, period.

And we’ve all wasted an enormous amount of gems to discover this little unfortunate fact. :dizzy_face:

While we’re pointing out unusual troop drop frequencies, I want to draw attention to the similarity of pulls I was getting from both my console and PC accounts. I have screenshots of Gem chests pulls taken minutes between each other, and they tended to be top heavy in these UR troops:

Black Beast ***
Blast Cannon
Chimera
Flame Cannon
Flesh Golem ***
Sacred Guardian
Spider Queen ***
War Sphinx ***

These are all from the original release version. That list also changed a bit over time; I used to get a lot of Lamia on console, and now not so much; I’m getting Stone Giant instead.

What’s weird for me here is that my first UR cards were 1. Flesh Golem, 2. Black Beast, and my last three URs to appear from the original release were X. Spider Queen, Y. War Sphinx, Z. Blade Dancer.

After that… I started getting spammed with Black Beasts and War Sphinxes in my chests. I didn’t think much of it until I noticed I was continually failing to get Centaur Scout (common). What could possibly connect these RNG incidences? Well… Perhaps somehow there’s an alphabetical list bias? Meaning that Black Beast is near the beginning of the list (as is “Berserker” in @wargems’ case) while War Sphinx was right at the end. So too we find Centaur Scout is the first of the common cards in an alphabetical listing of rarity. In the original 1.06 troop display list, Centaur Scout (the last common I received) was also placed in the lineup immediately before Keeper of Souls… which coincidentally was the first Legendary I ever received on console…

I realize this is all conjecture, but these coincidences are interesting. I can’t fathom a fair guess for what might even cause this. What, might there be something unusual about the salt value modification, associated with my console account from the start?