vault tokens and the flashing cover animation

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jredd
jredd Posts: 1,387 Chairperson of the Boards
edited March 2016 in MPQ General Discussion
so, i thought i'd be clever and see if the order of covers repeated itself in the vaults. they do, until you actually tap your screen. then it just randomly picks a cover.

why bother with the animation at all?

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  • udonomefoo
    udonomefoo Posts: 1,630 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Because the designers are nostalgic Press Your Luck fans

    53a0341d-2a41-4b40-9a00-bc80d01261e0.gif
  • TheWerebison
    TheWerebison Posts: 431 Mover and Shaker
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    udonomefoo wrote:
    Because the designers are nostalgic Press Your Luck fans

    53a0341d-2a41-4b40-9a00-bc80d01261e0.gif

    Big money, big money, no Moonstone, no Moonstone, STOP!
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
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    If you open a multi-pack of vault tokens, the first one does the spin, and then the rest open like regular multi-packs.
  • Marine8394
    Marine8394 Posts: 301 Mover and Shaker
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    BlackBoltRocks wrote:
    It's to raise your hopes with the intention of destroying them. Like when it's about to stop and seems to settle on that icon_jeangrey.png icon. Your eyes widen, heart beats faster...

    And at the last millisecond that icon changes into icon_moonstone.png

    Or like today for me it stuck on Moonpie for a good 3-4 seconds, and didn't tic over! Ah another 250 ISO pie. It made going 32 straight DDQ events while earning at least one five pack of health all that more satisfying. icon_mrgreen.gif
  • Nightglider1
    Nightglider1 Posts: 701 Critical Contributor
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    So, is it insane that I've re-rostered her? And, while not the best pull, that I wasn't angry to see one of her covers from a Taco?
  • udonomefoo
    udonomefoo Posts: 1,630 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Nightglider1 wrote:
    So, is it insane that I've re-rostered her? And, while not the best pull, that I wasn't angry to see one of her covers from a Taco?

    I recently considered rostering and maxing her just so I wouldn't have to get mad about it anymore. Then I looked at the progression thread and saw that moonstone gives hulk covers, who gives Totally Hotdog Hulk covers and I lol'd and moved on.
  • Hendross
    Hendross Posts: 762 Critical Contributor
    edited March 2016
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    TheWerebison wrote:
    Big money, big money, no Moonstone, no Moonstone, STOP! FuuLET'S KEEP IT PG13 AROUND HERE!!!!

    fixed.

    Moderator edit: Please don't do that. -DayvBang
  • Calnexin
    Calnexin Posts: 1,078 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I've noticed that slot 5 is almost always hp. But, the times I get hp, it is not in that slot.

    That doesn't mean that it not being there guarantees I pull hp (or, by extension, that any interruption in the pattern indicates the prize you're getting). I don't know what it means, but it's there.
  • Nightglider1
    Nightglider1 Posts: 701 Critical Contributor
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    Calnexin wrote:
    I've noticed that slot 5 is almost always hp. But, the times I get hp, it is not in that slot.

    That doesn't mean that it not being there guarantees I pull hp (or, by extension, that any interruption in the pattern indicates the prize you're getting). I don't know what it means, but it's there.

    The animation is to distract you from the reality that your odds are still tinykitty.
  • Nick441234
    Nick441234 Posts: 1,496 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I dont even watch it cause its too annoying seeing a cover you want sail by and you get that 2* once again. Two quick taps and see what I've got.
  • mindsuckr
    mindsuckr Posts: 154
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    udonomefoo wrote:
    Because the designers are nostalgic Press Your Luck fans

    53a0341d-2a41-4b40-9a00-bc80d01261e0.gif

    I wish they were actual Press Your Luck fans, because then we'd be able to manipulate our pulls just like Michael Larson did.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson#Preparations
  • JeffCascadian
    JeffCascadian Posts: 665 Critical Contributor
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    I don't even try to time when I press the screen. Once the vault's animation starts rotating through the prizes, I do something else for a little bit, be it a few seconds or a couple minutes, and then press the screen. Does it help? Not really but I don't honestly believe there's a method that would ensure the better rewards other than buying them all--something I could never do for any value except Deadpool's two, and I am saving my Taco Tokens.
  • carrion_pigeons
    carrion_pigeons Posts: 942 Critical Contributor
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    JeffCascadian wrote:
    I don't even try to time when I press the screen. Once the vault's animation starts rotating through the prizes, I do something else for a little bit, be it a few seconds or a couple minutes, and then press the screen. Does it help? Not really but I don't honestly believe there's a method that would ensure the better rewards other than buying them all--something I could never do for any value except Deadpool's two, and I am saving my Taco Tokens.

    Buying them all ensures exactly average rewards. Is that really an exciting prospect? What are you going to do with hundreds of health packs at once?

    You can game the system slightly by refusing to use tacos on a DDQ vault from which you've already pulled one of the thirty best rewards (assuming you get ten tacos per week, your EV per vault is exactly one of the top 30, and if you get it, then your EV goes down proportionately).

    Tacos are also useful as a means of "storing" health packs so you can use the ones that regenerate first instead of last.

    You can also skip using tacos on particularly low-value vaults in order to have more shots on the better-value ones, although this has rapid diminishing returns because of how your EV drops every time you get a good pull.

    Saving your tacos to use them all at once is not an effective way to maximize value.
  • JeffCascadian
    JeffCascadian Posts: 665 Critical Contributor
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    What will I do with all those health packs? Use 'em--eventually.

    Honestly, I understand what you've written but it's nothing that I didn't think about in advance. I won't just hit 300 and buy the active vault unless it's one I really want. I'll wait until there's a vault that has a combination of 4 star.png and 3 star.png that I can use and buy that one. Any cover that I can't use directly becomes iso8.png to level all the others and, boy howdy, do I need iso8.png ! All those Hero Points mean that I won't have to worry about slots for a good long time and I might even do a Daily Deal and buy a 40 pack for the first time.

    In the meantime, it's an exercise in patience. Lots and lots of patience. icon_e_smile.gif
  • carrion_pigeons
    carrion_pigeons Posts: 942 Critical Contributor
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    No, I mean, okay, you can do what you want with your tokens obviously, but you're gimping yourself for no reason that I can detect. Saving up tacos forever costs you some measurable amount of resources that you're never going to get back. It's even worse value over time than just opening them all immediately (although that's a weak strategy too), since once you buy out a DDQ vault, you stop yourself from regenerating health packs for a loooong time. That's free value the game gives everyone that you're just tossing out the window.

    You can hoard tacos if you want to, though. Everybody does things for fun sometimes and it is going to be pretty entertaining getting all the max rewards at once on the same day. Just as long as you know that mathematically speaking, it's the worst expected value you can achieve without actually just refusing to ever open the tokens at all.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,518 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Re: the OP, the animation is just window dressing. An RNG determines the reward as soon as you choose to pull the token and start the animation. This is per an interview that was on the Puzzle Warriors podcast with a MPQ producer a couple months back. So there is no point whatsoever in trying to time your stop of the animation.
  • JeffCascadian
    JeffCascadian Posts: 665 Critical Contributor
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    I may have to listen to that episode again. (Ah, darn. Listening to a repeat of one of my favorite podcasts. icon_e_smile.gif )
  • Linkster79
    Linkster79 Posts: 1,037 Chairperson of the Boards
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    It was confirmed ages ago that the animation is just window dressing. The results are determined as soon as you decide to use the tokens. Anyone tells you they have a foolproof system in place is mistaken.
  • Monged4life
    Monged4life Posts: 420
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    For the first event vault (I think it was independence?) the animation was actually what you would get. With 4 tokens I had the 3 4*s from waiting for it to cycle. That was 'fixed' for the second one so it now serves no purpose.

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