DPK is true, only applies on items that drops with sound on it and a ?% on its drop rate.
DPK does play a major role; however, this system isnāt entirely DPK based. An item will likely not drop at the same amount of kills each time (there is a chance of it happening, though).
From what Iāve observed, drops (the ones I observed on the infrorocktor map, anyway) are likely ~95% DPK (+/- a few percent) with the rest being an added RNG variance.
A 100% DPK system would have been figured out a long time ago (by, as youāve tested, seeing if a set kill count will always produce a drop); if this is how the system worked, it would likely upset a lot of people. IMC needs/needed drops to feel random enough, while also having a heavy level of predictability. With a 100% RNG system, two of the same items can drop one after the other, but it is unlikely to happen (it, however, has the potential to happen). Figuring out the RNG:DPK ratio is as easy as finding the minimum number of kills between drops and comparing it to the maximum.
DPKās job is to act as the order side of the coin, and RNGās side is the chaos aspect. Most programmers are aware that computer-based random number generating is not very random. And due to this, It is quite common for them to introduce some level of order to make randomness feel more random, while still having some predictabilityābut not enough predictability for the average person to pick up on.
Iāll likely do some more testing, and Iām also curious to see @Ingelās results in a few days.
2 Likes
My very first experience working with RNG in some crappy game I made where a few friends tested it for me:
I had a 1 and like 65000 chance of a heal item dropping every 100 milliseconds. I thought, āBoy this RNG is so high that it should be rare enough!ā
Nah. 2 of my friends got a few of them within the first few levels, fine. Then my 3rd friend sends me a screenshot with heal items literally strewn about all over the place like, āUhhā¦ they literally just kept spawning I donāt think itās supposed to work like that.ā
I was a noob at the time and was like, āWTF? Thereās no way itās a 1 and 65000 chanceā¦ā
Point is, if you are correct about there being a mix of RNG and DPK, it might actually be to prevent a situation where the item could drop repeatedly over and over and over again like the scenario that I pointed out due to, as you already said, computer random generators are inaccurate to a fault.
It could be as complex as, if 1 drops then a certain small amount of time must pass before another will drop, if too many drop in a set period of time, DPK is triggered?
As embarrassing as it sounds, Iām not really patient enough to open a game and spend time trying to observe how the numbers are working. Iād rather program and work with my own numbers and play other peopleās games mindlessly.
Just a thought though. Feel free to tell me to stfu lol.
2 Likes
No, I definitely agree with you. Rarely do I crunch numbers in a game; it was just something to do while I was spending those ~34 hours grinding for the boater. After awhile of grinding, I seem to enter a trance-like state and think about things. It helped time go faster I suppose.
Iām somewhat of a programmer myself, actually. I specialize in C++, but I have experience with a few other languages due to being a CS major.
I started learning C++ a littleā¦ was working with an Unreal Engine tutorial just for āfunā but there were so many false positives being written to my error list I ended up doing a table flip, closing VS and noping out of there after 3 hours of trying to research how to resolve this only to keep coming back to people saying itās VSās intellisense that hates C++.
Probably have to invest in a proper C++ specialized Intellisense before I can start working with the language properly since Visual Studioās intellisense hates C++ (at least in Unreal Engine?) I saw a good one for $100 for a personal license called Visual Assist.
It just made me run back to my comfort zone of C# with potato chips, a blanket and some chocolate ice creamā¦ >_>
I love C# LOL
ā¦ okay I know that I need to leave my comfort zone and learn other languages. 
2 Likes
Whatās with this butthurt OP, reactions werenāt even bad, just a bunch of people who were interested in the topic and asked if he could provide more proofā¦
/Test it yourself
1 Like
Haha, I know what you mean. Anymore I try to limit myself to coding in Vim (Vim master race, no hate to emacs fans) and compiling on the fly with a terminal, but school keeps forcing me to rely on VS for C++ (possibly because MS pays them to, or more likely because it is the industry standard). IDEs are useful for large projects, but sometimes I just want to relax with a small text editor and terminal.
Most of my peers really dislike C++, but it is due to it requiring a high level of control (memory management, garbage collection, etc), but it could also be due to my school spoiling us by focusing on Java first. I happen to be a control freak when it comes to programming; so C++ is my thing.
I donāt really have much knowledge on C# since I havenāt been exposed to it much (with the exception of my brother coding in it, occasionally).
But yeah, the best language is the one you enjoy working with the most (or the best language for the job, too, I guess). I should probably be programming instead of playing on ToS, but sometimes I canāt help but to give into the grind.
Edit: But actually, I think youāve inspired me to get back into the habit of programming regularly again. Talking about it just now made me realize how much I miss doing it daily.
1 Like
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
This would be an advantage to bot parties/armies sprawling a particular map. More kills at a time by securing multiple spawn points means more chances at landing that lucky kill.
Is there a good reason why DPK would be better than RNG in an MMORPG like this? Makes me want give up on farming rares, especially when youāre competing w/ bots who do the same 24/7 and in groups.
That other drop thread reminded me of a fact that we ignored so far: Drops are not determined at time of kill, drops are already determined when a monster spawns.
So DPK is impossible, but it could still be āEvery xth monster that spawns has this dropā. It could be that this monster already spawned and is in a corner of the map where you are, so if you just stand on a single spot, you might never get it.
1 Like
Iām curious but how do we know that drops are determined when a monster spawns?
I havenāt tested that in a control group so I cannot say whether that would happen. But I can guess based on already known information. The drops are decided on monster spawn, not kill. If thereās nothing in the code saying 2 same gears canāt exist within the same channel on 2 separate monsters, then you can potentially queue up every monster in that channel to have the same gear drop (this is why Iām leveling my own oracle, so I donāt have to double up my kills). This would also prove that a high(low?) dpk item can drop twice over a few kills even if the kills needed is 10,000.
I will test it today and report back.
Because otherwise, oracle skills donāt make any sense. (They check what drops a monster currently has and they can force a monster to reroll its drops)
Good info to know and test.
I got 2 mithril ores within 30 minutes or less, but I was jumping from channel to channel.
Considering the low spawn rate of the monster (Stone Orca, C. Mines 1F) and the known super low drop rate of the item, channel-wide (particular map, particular channel) it canāt be DPK, BUT map-wide (particular map, all channels) it could be considering the number of players/bots farming the same mob.
Why couldnāt an Oracle generate those drops when using the skill?
Before or after the maintence of today?
That doesnt prove anything either way. If anything iād say it does the opposite and support DPK. It seems more likely that 2 rare items would drop on 2 seperate counters then if just RNG.
Thereās a reason why some people are saying if DPK does exist its better to swap channels after a DPK item drops. Once the mithril dropped for you it would have set the counter back on 0. The DPK on the other channels can be anywhere from 0-drop rate. You could have hopped on the channel near the end of the counter and killed it.
Speaking of maintenance, did you confirm if the DPK resets along with the server coming back up?
No, this was 2-3 weeks ago. A wednesday or thursday if I remember it right, around 2-3AM my time (SEA).
The next day around the same time I got 1. Since then up to the present I never got one anymore (though Iāve been seeing an increasing number of folks farming and pet-AFKing the same spot).