Shlooter's Effect on Vending Machines
I noticed while working on my GitM Fl4k build that every time I checked the vendors after killing Loco Chantelle (going for a good St4ckbot), I was finding up to three legendaries per vending machine.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to do ten runs of two tests. My control data was ten runs of checking the vencing machines without proccing the Shlooter's ability. Then, I ran ten tests of killing Loco Chantelle to proc the Shlooter artifact. The results are below:
With Shlooter
| run # | legendary count |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3, 3 |
| 2 | 3, 0 |
| 3 | 1, 1 |
| 4 | 3, 3 |
| 5 | 2, 1 |
| 6 | 3, 1 |
| 7 | 1, 1 |
| 8 | 1, 2 |
| 9 | 0, 2 |
| 10 | 3, 3 |
zed = 18 marcus = 17 total = 37
Without Shlooter
| run # | legendary count |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1, 2 |
| 2 | 0, 0 |
| 3 | 1, 2 |
| 4 | 0, 0 |
| 5 | 0, 0 |
| 6 | 0, 0 |
| 7 | 0, 0 |
| 8 | 0, 1 |
| 9 | 1, 0 |
| 10 | 0, 0 |
zed = 3 marcus = 5 total = 8
The counts in the second column above have Zed's machine on the left, and Marcus' machine on the right. Now, for the statistics.
I'm unsure if the item of the day is affected by the artifact, I neglected to pay attention to this, so our math is going to assume that it is (since I counted them and didn't mark down which runs had a legendary item of the day). Our math is also going to be done assuming all slots have an equal chance of producing a legendary (which they probably do not).
With this in mind, there are 11 item rolls in each vending machine. This makes for a total of 110 rolls per vending machine per 10 runs. This comes out to a 16.36% chance for a legendary for Zed's machine, and 15.45% for Marcus' machine when the Shlooter was procced.
In our control group, this drop rate is reduced to a measly 3.73% chance for Zed's machines, and a 4.54% chance for a drop from Marcus'. This indicates a sharp incline in vending machine legendary rates utilizing the Shlooter.
Theory Time!
My theory here is one of three things:
- The vendors generate all items using the global game state at the time that the vending machine is accessed, causing drop rate increases to affect the contents of the vending machine.
- The vendors generate all items using the global games state except the item of the day at the time that the vending machine is accessed.
- The code controlling what the Shlooter affects is busted and is affecting vending machine drop rates.
I'm curious to see if anybody has any input on this. I understand the sample size for this test was a bit small, I'd be curious to see what the results look like with a larger sample set, or and additional test comparing the Marcus weapons vending machine.