The digits at the end of your name: not random?

[(PSN)Unstar]

I have been given reason to suspect that the number at the end of your name may not be random.  If that sounds interesting to you, please join me for some nerdy hypotheses and detective work!

Yesterday for the first time in years, I went to re-roll a Riven.  And my eyes were immediately drawn to some odd things in the upper-right of my screen:

• The amount of Kuva I had was 691,691
• The amount of platinum I had ended in 691.

What made this particularly odd is that the #number that was assigned to the end of my name is 691; which is to say, on my profile screen it shows my name as Unstar#691.  Because it's so improbable that all of these numbers would simultaneously align, I began to wonder whether this wasn't simply a coincidence.

Personally, I suspect that the platinum part is a coincidence, since I am all but certain I've spent platinum since receiving my #number in The Great Numbering.

However, I never do anything involving Kuva.  The only time I can think that I would receive any Kuva would be when it is randomly rolled as a reward at the end of an Archon Hunt.  Other than that, I'm not spending it and I'm not gaining it.  And because of that:

• it is realistically possible that the amount of Kuva I possess has not changed since we were given #numbers.
• it is nearly 100% certain that the last 3 digits of my Kuva value are the same now as they were when I received my #number, since Archon Hunts can only reward 6000 Kuva which would not disrupt the last 3 digits.

Which leads me to wonder: is it possible that for players who had accounts when The Great Numbering occurred, that the number at the end of our names is based on the amount of Kuva we had when those numbers were bestowed upon us?

That's my current theory, but I clearly need more data.  Which is why I come to you: I'm sure there are plenty of players like me who aren't into Rivens and haven't done any Lich/Sister content in awhile, meaning that their Kuva amounts may not have changed since The Great Numbering and thus still represent the value of Kuva owned during that time.  So if you fall into that category, please share what you find with me!

It could be that this is all an improbable coincidence, but I felt the desire to follow up just in case. Thanks!

Edited December 10, 2023 by (PSN)Unstar
typo

[Voltage]

I think you're losing it.

[(PSN)Unstar]

1 minute ago, Voltage said:

I think you're losing it.

By simply wondering whether an improbable situation is the result of design rather than coincidence and asking others to provide evidence that would either support or disprove that possibility?

[Voltage]

1 minute ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

By simply wondering whether an improbable situation is the result of design rather than coincidence and asking others to provide evidence that would either support or disprove that possibility?

Yeah, there is logic to that number selection, given that even random number generators need logic. However, I read the whole topic, and I think you've lost it lol. 

[(XBOX)C11H22O11]

Pretty sure it's random, too risky to tie it to something you own cause maybe bob on playstation and bob on switch both have 0 plat

[(PSN)Lollybomb]

Consider, if you will, the possibility that the number was based on something in the account that is player controlled.  Now, consider that you have two people on different platforms with the same name, and the same data that the number would be derived from.  Oops, you now have two accounts that are the same.

This reason alone makes it such that deriving the number from player controllable information is a bad idea.

Also, why would they go through that much effort when they could just do "randomint(0,999);"  Actually, randomint and then double check that the given combination of account and number doesn't already exist.  If it does, pull another random number until you get a unique combination.

Edited December 10, 2023 by (PSN)Lollybomb

[(PSN)Unstar]

2 minutes ago, (XBOX)C11H22O11 said:

Pretty sure it's random, too risky to tie it to something you own cause maybe bob on playstation and bob on switch both have 0 plat

I didn't put this in my initial post because it was already long and complex, but I don't think the design would have been as simple as always having a 1:1 relationship between some kind of source values and a player's #number, and for the exact reasons you mentioned: such a simplistic technique would probably work for 99.99% of cases, but the possibility that there would be a case that would result in conflicting values is too prominent to ignore.

Because of that, I would assume that if this is not a coincidence, that the process would first try to assign #numbers based on values, but that in the case of a conflict a backup method would be used.

[(PSN)Unstar]

35 minutes ago, (PSN)Lollybomb said:

Also, why would they go through that much effort when they could just do "randomint(0,999);"

First off, randomint(0,999) is not a viable solution, for the exact same reason as the hypothetical example you mentioned above: such a solution has a non-zero chance of assigning the same #number to two accounts with the same name. Both of these solutions would need backup methods, similar to what I mentioned in my previous reply.

I also don't agree with the phrase "that much effort", because an experienced programmer can add this flourish in 5 minutes.  I'm not even a great programmer and I'll do it myself right now:

Quote

for username in usernameList:
    idsForThisUsername = []
    for user in username:
        id = user.kuva % 1000
        while id in idsForThisUsername:
            # This is your backup; do something here to change the value, whether it's rolling a new random value, incrementing it, etc
        user.id = id
        idsForThisUsername.append(id)

It's worth acknowledging that the kuva part of this took no time at all to write; the actual lift in this code is the part that ensures that the id's are distinct, which would be needed regardless of the technique being used.

 

As for the why: because it's fun, because it's cute, because someone thought it was a neat idea.  Sometimes even programmers have fun!

Now, did that actually happen?  I don't know.  You can code anything you want, and Hence why I'm asking for data.

Edited December 10, 2023 by (PSN)Unstar
less specific backup value so as not to confuse

[TARINunit9]

29 minutes ago, (PSN)Lollybomb said:

Also, why would they go through that much effort when they could just do "randomint(0,999);"  Actually, randomint and then double check that the given combination of account and number doesn't already exist.  If it does, pull another random number until you get a unique combination.

You are correct that it's random, but WHY it's random probably has to do with a hash index table. Running a RandomInt() function on a server-side script is a lot of extra effort and risk for something that's most likely redundant 

[Tsukinoki]

1 hour ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

that the number at the end of our names is based on the amount of Kuva we had when those numbers were bestowed upon us?

I can report from first hand evidence that that is not a thing.

The 3 digits assigned to my account were #908.
My kuva (which really hasn't changed since then as I don't farm kuva nor do I really do much with rivens) is 550,700.
Considering that I haven't spent kuva at all in recent memory, and at most I've gotten only a few hundred here and there for random kuvaligns popping up which I ignore and yeah....no way to get #908 from my kuva amount.

1 hour ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

It could be that this is all an improbable coincidence, but I felt the desire to follow up just in case. Thanks!

It's 100% coincidence as well as the human brain being designed to look for and find patterns in the world around us....even where no such pattern exists.

Our brains are a bit too fine tuned for finding patterns, in much teh same way that we are a bit too fine tuned to recognize faces, which is why we see both of those things in places where they never existed.

33 minutes ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

I also don't agree with the phrase "that much effort", because an experienced programmer can add this flourish in 5 minutes.  I'm not even a great programmer and I'll do it myself right now:

Quote

for username in usernameList:
    idsForThisUsername = []
    for user in username:
        id = user.kuva % 1000
        while id in idsForThisUsername:
            # This is your backup; do something here to change the value, whether it's rolling a new random value, incrementing it, etc
        user.id = id
        idsForThisUsername.append(id)

It's worth acknowledging that the kuva part of this took no time at all to write; the actual lift in this code is the part that ensures that the id's are distinct, which would be needed regardless of the technique being used.

Also if you really wanted a fairly fast, efficient, and minimal coding way to get the unique 3 digits: Just do a hash index on a table in the database.
Done and you have your numbers and they are going to be unique (if there is a hash collision then you're not implementing it correctly) and automatic and you don't really need to care about the ins and outs of how or why the numbers were assigned as they were.....and programmers are generally going to go with the most efficient/laziest (which often overlaps) approach.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Tsukinoki

[(PSN)robotwars7]

1 hour ago, Voltage said:

I think you're losing it.

He already broke into Albrecht's labs ahead of time and started drinking random fluids i think XD!

It really is just random, or at least it pertains to something else. Mine is #565, which i never would have chosen willingly, it's 101 too low IMO..

[Slayer-.]

 

16 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

I have been given reason to suspect that the number at the end of your name may not be random.  If that sounds interesting to you, please join me for some nerdy hypotheses and detective work!

Yesterday for the first time in years, I went to re-roll a Riven.  And my eyes were immediately drawn to some odd things in the upper-right of my screen:

• The amount of Kuva I had was 691,691
• The amount of platinum I had ended in 691.

What made this particularly odd is that the #number that was assigned to the end of my name is 691; which is to say, on my profile screen it shows my name as Unstar#691.  Because it's so improbable that all of these numbers would simultaneously align, I began to wonder whether this wasn't simply a coincidence.

Personally, I suspect that the platinum part is a coincidence, since I am all but certain I've spent platinum since receiving my #number in The Great Numbering.

However, I never do anything involving Kuva.  The only time I can think that I would receive any Kuva would be when it is randomly rolled as a reward at the end of an Archon Hunt.  Other than that, I'm not spending it and I'm not gaining it.  And because of that:

• it is realistically possible that the amount of Kuva I possess has not changed since we were given #numbers.
• it is nearly 100% certain that the last 3 digits of my Kuva value are the same now as they were when I received my #number, since Archon Hunts can only reward 6000 Kuva which would not disrupt the last 3 digits.

Which leads me to wonder: is it possible that for players who had accounts when The Great Numbering occurred, that the number at the end of our names is based on the amount of Kuva we had when those numbers were bestowed upon us?

That's my current theory, but I clearly need more data.  Which is why I come to you: I'm sure there are plenty of players like me who aren't into Rivens and haven't done any Lich/Sister content in awhile, meaning that their Kuva amounts may not have changed since The Great Numbering and thus still represent the value of Kuva owned during that time.  So if you fall into that category, please share what you find with me!

It could be that this is all an improbable coincidence, but I felt the desire to follow up just in case. Thanks!

Thanks for the read, I've come to this conclusion based on your post that it is a big.

Time to journey down to the depths and sus it out even more.

Then again, nice story, can I get what you're taking?

[Hayrack]

The closest thing I have to my account number is 144 pieces of Tellurium...

Edited December 11, 2023 by Hayrack

[Slayer-.]

12 minutes ago, Hayrack said:

The closest thing I have to my account number is 144 pieces of Tellurium...

The closest thing I have to #119 is 116 built Forma. 

 

[Aruquae]

17 hours ago, Voltage said:

I think you're losing it.

Probably tried farming Harrow 

[(PSN)Unstar]

Thanks to those who added evidence to the pile!  A friend of mine was also able to weigh in that their age-old Kuva pile didn't correspond to their #number, which provides enough examples to convince me that as improbable as it might be, I was simply experiencing a...[does some math]...1 in 1,000,000,000 chance outcome.

Improbable, but most certainly possible!

[Slayer-.]

14 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

Thanks to those who added evidence to the pile!  A friend of mine was also able to weigh in that their age-old Kuva pile didn't correspond to their #number, which provides enough examples to convince me that as improbable as it might be, I was simply experiencing a...[does some math]...1 in 1,000,000,000 chance outcome.

Improbable, but most certainly possible!

Things can look pretty trippy at times, then take a hard look and pull this face.   

[FulfillMyWill]

That number is just a lottery

 

 

...and I won the jackpot

Спойлер

 

[Aruquae]

12 minutes ago, FulfillMyWill said:

That number is just a lottery

 

 

...and I won the jackpot

  Hide contents

 

The best account I’ve seen

Also what’s that Hildryn fashion? Looking fire ngl

[FulfillMyWill]

30 минут назад, Malikili сказал:

The best account I’ve seen

Also what’s that Hildryn fashion? Looking fire ngl

Sigrun Skin (tennogen) + Asuron Helmet + "Toggle Prime Details" is on.

Saturn Six Shoulder plates + Mulciber Chest plate + Protovyre Apex Ephemera

Edited December 12, 2023 by FulfillMyWill