Loot random number generator borked?

Some of you may, or may not know, how difficult it is to make a logical thing such as computer make random numbers. Easy way is to take time of the day as seed number, and randomize from that.

But what has this to do with GW and loot?

Well. Few weeks ago, I was killing ettins to get some gold. I got about a dozen Major Vigors during the day I spent, pretty good.

Today, I've been farming. I've seen about a dozen Major Domination magics drop (and a pile of random ones, of course).

Seems bit... 'wierd' to get a lot of one and the same rune in such a timespan, at best I got couple of Major Dominations in a row today..

Is GW loot drop generator really random, or does it have a flaw? I'd say so, atleast what those two runs did, but might be an odd fluke as well.. Luck is just that.. luck.

But anyone else notice anything similar? Lots of similar type things dropping a lot one day, and next day something entirely different?

Yeah, I've seen the "lots of one thing one day, lots of another the next" phenomenon too. For instance I've in 10 months found a total of two superior vigors - both on the same day; I found about a dozen fellblades in one day, more than I've found ever before or since combined; I found two max armor magma shields my first trip to the ring of fire, have never found one since etc etc.

This "stickiness" of the random number generator is probably due to the algorithm used to generate random numbers, but without knowing exactly what it is it's hard to say what might cause it. In the meantime it means that if you get good loot, you should continue looting.

Strangely enough, I also had 2 Major Domination Runes in armors for me today, and 2 minors as well. Thought it was strange...

In one farming run I got 8 major fire magic runes... Kinda strange as well.

@kaguya
the fact that you understand how a random number generator works should give you the answer you seek. nothing a computer ever does will be random. it is impossible for computers to simulate randomness, as you stated, because of their logical behavior. computers give the semblance of randomness by implementing complicated functions based on ever changing variables.

this is why sometimes loot is distributed evenly and sometimes one person will get all of the good drops or you will get similar drops repeatedly. that's an anomaly in the "seed" that is being used by the computer. it just happens, and we'll have to accept it.

Actually, it is a ridiculously simply function that works surprisingly well

I never had a superior rune in 7 months of playing, then I got death and domination in the thunderhead mission, and then another domination in another attempt on that mission 2 days after!

yes, the root call itself is pretty simple and effective. however, most programs integrate the output into a more complicated function in order to create more "randomness."

I still think they could add in more.

Actually, there is a perfect source of randomness in the game all the time: the player. Record the keypresses and mouse movement, add in a random factor (unix format time) and some other junk, and use that as a seed.

You won't be able to 'left, right, left, backstep, skill 2, skill 1'-cheat to get best loot as time and other stuff would still mess it up, but I think this would create a perfectly random algorithm for loot.

This aint never happened to me but is loot set or random? cos around SF you always seem to get 98 gold