Duke Blacke Guide?

Vash - Dreamweaver

Does anyone know of a more or less accurate guide to Duke Blacke's rewards to Inquiring About Rumors? This thread got me wondering about what exactly he can do for you and what the chances of those things happening are:

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=251512

Anyone know anything? Even a guide in Chinese could be helpful b:chuckle

Arliana - Dreamweaver

Well, a guide would require many many players posting their findings and we should start marking down things that are confirmed.

Confirmed:

1) Crafting Bonus
2) Refining Bonus
3) Hidden Quest (Mr. Yeh 3000XP)
4) Free Money (10000 coin)
5) Lucky Mode (Triggered by talking and trading to a specific gem merchant)
6) Tipsy (Drunk NPC has different shop prices)

Unconfirmed

1) Element Cycle (Increased Mob Drop Rate)
2) Crafting at Specific Times of Day (Makes sense though)

Sometimes False

1) A Specific Territory Getting Attacked
2) Quest NPC giving you a quest (This seems to be just shouting of random quests that you may or may not have already done or will do)


I'm sure I'm missing a lot of them, other ppl fill in.

Flauschkatze - Heavens Tear

I still don't understand the lucky mode Oo
you have to sell lucky packs to the npc to trigger it? b:puzzled

Arliana - Dreamweaver

Lucky Mode is when Duke Blacke gives you a specific npc gem merchant. He will say that npc is "lucky". If you trade with him, his luck MIGHT rub off on you. You will then find said npc and trade with him. After trading with him, having the lucky mirage celestone in your pocket, you will then have increased mob drops, your lucky packs will always crit, and you will generally experience better fortune. This doesnt always work so i suggest you farm a handful of lucky cards, the lowest level of lucky pack to test. I call this the card test. A crit will generally have 12 hp and mp potions 1 grade higher than the pack's value, as well as a few big headed pills. Its very hard to get him to say this, and extremely hard to get it to work, which was the point of the previous thread, which seems to have gotten horribly off topic lol. Anyways, I was trying to figure out the rate of getting the lucky mirage celestone and so far I've got about a 1/20 chance. However, I only had enough mats for 20 lol. So this one needs much much further testing as to the rate. On sanc, I know a lot of ppl that do this and card testing is probably the safest way to check if it works, so that you dont waste your lucky packs, easter eggs, charm boxes, etc.

Toxic - Dreamweaver

Trading w/ the npc meaning, you can sell anything to them? Or do you need to buy something from them? Or craft something from them? And, if their luck does rub off, you will find a mirage celestone in your inventory? Making sure I understand what you're saying.

Arliana - Dreamweaver

its a gem merchant. theres only 1 thing u can get from them... gem merchants are the npcs that trade fragments and stuff for mirages. so... ya, you will have a mirage in your inventory. if u dont, contact a gm cause it glitched lol.

Arliana - Dreamweaver

How bout we get a bunch of volunteers together and start writing down everything he says. Eventually, we should be able to get everything.

Xdmghyper - Lost City

how much refining bonus does it raise? and how many times i need to talk to him to get that option and how long it last?

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear

Arliana - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Well, a guide would require many many players posting their findings and we should start marking down things that are confirmed.

Confirmed that these don't work :

1) Crafting Bonus
2) Refining Bonus

Solandri - Heavens Tear

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Confirmed that these don't work :

1) Crafting Bonus
2) Refining Bonus

My experience say the crafting bonus seems to work.

Got the ornament crafting bonus. Made the following starred items: 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1. (ran out of materials)

Got the blacksmith crafting bonus. Made the following starred items: 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1. (ran out of materials)

Close to 50% 2-starred items in 13 attempts I think is a really strong trend.

Norina - Dreamweaver

Arliana - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Lucky Mode is when Duke Blacke gives you a specific npc gem merchant. He will say that npc is "lucky". If you trade with him, his luck MIGHT rub off on you. You will then find said npc and trade with him. After trading with him, having the lucky mirage celestone in your pocket, you will then have increased mob drops, your lucky packs will always crit, and you will generally experience better fortune. This doesnt always work so i suggest you farm a handful of lucky cards, the lowest level of lucky pack to test. I call this the card test. A crit will generally have 12 hp and mp potions 1 grade higher than the pack's value, as well as a few big headed pills. Its very hard to get him to say this, and extremely hard to get it to work, which was the point of the previous thread, which seems to have gotten horribly off topic lol. Anyways, I was trying to figure out the rate of getting the lucky mirage celestone and so far I've got about a 1/20 chance. However, I only had enough mats for 20 lol. So this one needs much much further testing as to the rate. On sanc, I know a lot of ppl that do this and card testing is probably the safest way to check if it works, so that you dont waste your lucky packs, easter eggs, charm boxes, etc.

I could cry. He's said this to me twice and I had no clue what he meant.

As for the Refining Bonus, Blanch, last night he told me that if I wanted to get something above 7+ I should go see (there was a name). There's no way I could confirm if that would work or not, as I don't have anything +1, much less, +7, but he really *does* give out information like that.

I should just talking to him until I'm higher level I think. I'm using up all my lucky strikes.

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear

Solandri - Heavens Tear wrote: »

My experience say the crafting bonus seems to work.

Got the ornament crafting bonus. Made the following starred items: 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1. (ran out of materials)

Got the blacksmith crafting bonus. Made the following starred items: 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1. (ran out of materials)

Close to 50% 2-starred items in 13 attempts I think is a really strong trend.

What does that proves?

I made all the needed weapons for the level 6 blacksmith quest in 13 try. Without the Duke's so called "tips"

Arliana - Dreamweaver

You have to remember some of duke blackes other tips when your refining also. less crowded districts have a higher chance, also, time of day matters.

if your crafting at a town where your the only person as well as it being between 4am-9am with his bonus, your seeing more 2*s than you are 1*s.

Granrey - Sanctuary

the developers of this game have brought some stuff from real life here.b:laugh

I grew up in a third world country, in which people visit shamans, do witchcraft and so on, prior doing anything important and sometimes unimportant things too.

I can tell you, these shamans would give advice that work (by luck) with a miniority but this minority would make so much noise that the mayority would continue believing.

Saying that, this game could pretty well set or program a lucky system that as Arliana says works sometimes for a minority.

Anyways, until I see more prove on this, I'm a non-believer.b:byeb:laugh

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear

Arliana - Dreamweaver wrote: »

You have to remember some of duke blackes other tips when your refining also. less crowded districts have a higher chance, also, time of day matters.

if your crafting at a town where your the only person as well as it being between 4am-9am with his bonus, your seeing more 2*s than you are 1*s.

Why don,t you stop spreading all that BS?

All your crafting have a set % to create 2** and 3** items. Where and when you craft as well as population around have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Granrey - Sanctuary

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Why don,t you stop spreading all that BS?

All your crafting have a set % to create 2** and 3** items. Where and when you craft as well as population around have absolutely nothing to do with it.

What do you think about this? read belowb:chuckle:

Arliana - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Now to check if the luck has actually worn off on you, crack a lucky pack. If it crits, crack a second pack to make sure it wasnt a fluke. Now if after 2-3 packs they have all crited, your character has entered lucky mode till you log off or something, which im not sure, happens.

Arliana - Dreamweaver wrote: »

........and I'm not perfectly sure, but weather might affect............

Arliana - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Blacke also tells you when an npc is drunk. This seems stupid........... Stuff will be cheaper and u can sell your stuff for more. I havnt actually checked the price difference percent wise, however, it is better.

.

Toxic - Dreamweaver

Principle of Refining No. 2: Use a good computer.
Principle of Refining No. 4: Restart the game before you refine your gear. Me? I would reset my computer instead.
Principle of Refining No. 5: Close refining window every time you finish refining.
Principle of Refining No. 6: Go on if you were successful in the first refining of the day, otherwise you'd better wait for tomorrow.
Principle of Refining No. 8: If you fail a refining attempt, wait a minute before you try again. Test with anything lower than level 5 until you are successful, then refine your important gear.
Principle of Refining No. 9: Each time before you do the refining, lift up your head and shout

Paynefulsynn - Heavens Tear

Is this for real or are you guys making it up as you go along? o.O

Arliana - Dreamweaver

Well, principle 9 looks useless... lol

Ive seen it say if the second refining was useful continue also, ill post later which number it is when i see it.

I actually think we can complete this duke blacke guide lol.

Anyways some things I got just now:

Not bad! I like smart, inquisitive youngsters. Here, take this reward.
Got 10000 coin(s)


Long ago this world was peaceful. There were no wars... there were no... fools!

If you're going to refine somethine to ""+3"", go talk to the officer of Avalanche Canyon.

I heard that over in the north district of Archosaur, apothecary Lin just had a little spat with his wife. I'd steer clear of him until he cools down a bit.

It is said that the effect of the Ragin Sun Orb is somewhat similar to that of the Lava Crystal.

Seeing a GM is really a great honor!

That year I regarded money as something of little value, but now it is money that looks at me with little value!

You will never see true speed. It is like the wind blowing the clouds. Just as you never know exactly when an autumn leaf will fall, as you will never know when your child will get it's first tooth, as you will never know when you will fall in love.

It is rumoured that only by the Naughtol Document: Mars can one decipher the meaning of the scroll left by the God of the Scarlet Pheonix.

If you're going to refine something to ""+9"", go talk to the officer of the Vibrant Cliffs.

If you're going to refine something to ""+5"", go talk to the officer of the Shining Tidewood.

Every time I look at the city from this point of view, I'm overwhelmed by such an intense feeling. A small town is like a mother and we all living in her womb.

I heard there was a party in Dreamweaver Port and the apothecary got a little tipsy, Maybe you can get a good deal off him since he's in such a good mood.

It is said that the effect of the Arctic Orb is somewhat similar to that of the Orb of Vapor.

Han the Drunkard has been away from home for so long that his wife can barely stand it. She may even be thinking about having an affair.

It is said that the effect of the Crimson Soul Powder is somewhat similar to that of the Aurum Specter's Orb.

A surprise attack by the Ossaur Cavalry left many people helpless. I hear there are still five bodies lying in the Boundless Grasslands.

Today in the cycle of elements, fire will enhance wood, so you'd better watch out for wood element monsters.

This is the rumor channel, stay tuned...

I'm so broke, I don't have a single cent to my name!

There is a rumor that a faction is planning to attack the Ancient Wall this week.

There are some who have finished the Dragon Quest in 40 minutes, bit it's said that others have done it even faster!

I heard that with the advanced makeover scroll you can make one eye big and one eye small.

It is said that the effect of the Rock Powder is somewhat similar to that of the Iron Chunk.

Romance is usually not that real. It depends on how you meet. The more authentic, the less romantic. However, the more romantic your first chance meeting is, the more attractive your partner will be.

You've asked enough questions for today. Let the wise man rest for a while, okay?

If you're going to refine something to ""+12"", go talk to the officer at the Plain of Farewells.

I heard a flower began growing on someone's nose after he took the Vacuity Powder.

What good are men who are just handsome? They better be either educated or be able to fight!

If you are good at using the quest search functions, you will find the most suitable quests in the shortest amount of time.

Death will separate us from all the things most dear to us. It serves to remind us not to worry about acquiring too much.

If you are tired of killing monsters all day to level up, maybe you should go try the Dragon Quest.

It is said that the effect of the Transform Powder is somewhat similar to that of Green and Gold Amulet.

Solandri - Heavens Tear

Blancheneige - Heavens Tear wrote: »

What does that proves?

I made all the needed weapons for the level 6 blacksmith quest in 13 try. Without the Duke's so called "tips"

I specifically said it was a really strong trend, not proof.

Long-term, my rate at crafting 2-star items is about 25%. Prior to the level 4 quests, I had only made one 2-star item ever. I'm level 5 in every craft, so this is a sample size of at least 135 which would give an error margin of 9% with a 95% confidence interval. Looking at pwdatabase, it looks like that rate should be 40%. Probability would dictate that my experience is highly unlikely to have come about from just random chance.

So perhaps what's going on here is that some of the other tips he gives are correct, and e.g. when crafting in a crowded place your chances of making a 2- or 3-star item are lowered.

toxheavyveno

Ack I didn't realize it cut off the rest of number 9 on my post. The full saying is:

"Principle of Refining No. 9: Each time before you do the refining, lift up your head and shout "Praise be to the heavens! Praise to the Earth! Praise to technology! Praise to the Internet! Praise to the game industry!", then kneel down with your head to the ground. This will get you in the mood for refining."

And yes, all the things I have posted are saying Duke Blacke has told me.

Arliana - Dreamweaver

... holy....

principle refining 9 looks like a cheat code!!!

It seriously looks like a cheat code!!!

I'm really not sure this one will work lol.

Vash - Dreamweaver

Lol it does look like a cheat code...maybe i ought to try it out ^^

Also, Principle of Refining 3 is something like: Do your refining when there is no one else around you.

Arliana - Dreamweaver

I wonder.... are the cycle of elements global. We would need at least 4 more ppl to have the same result as me to have confirmed results. I got:

Today in the cycle of elements, fire will enhance wood, so you'd better watch out for wood element monsters.

gouraudpalm2

well, here is my little advice, i am not an english speaker so forgive my bad english.

the generation of random numbers is a very difficult thing to do, especially for computers who works with logical statements.

so in order to generate these numbers you need a method: you can use mathematical formulas to "simulate" a randomness, maybe querying the processor's temperature, maybe using a specific digit of the date expressed in miliseconds... etc etc etc.

so this "fake randomness" helps to these rumors to take strength.

with all these methods, the randomness is not very random at all.

search in google or wikipedia if you want to know more about this topic.

Arliana - Dreamweaver

The generation of random numbers is not a difficult thing to do. Any basic programming language can make random numbers appear. After a specific random number appears, it will then associate with a specific line of text. If the text has an npc requirement, it will then start a second random process and find said npc and store the npc's number. That specific npc will then have a specific function receive an increase or decrease in its value when triggered by a cache.

Seriously, give the programmers more credit than that.

Anyways, even if hundreds of events that are supposedly coincidences did occur, there would be no way to distinguish the flukes from the real thing, and as such, people will then have a choice to either believe that it works or that it doesn't.

Anyways, if you've noticed, Inquiring about rumours does appear in your quest log which means it is being calculated for something other than just randomly generated text.

Solandri - Heavens Tear

Yeah, if you don't like the quasi-random sequence generated by a stock random number generator, you can just seed it with values based on something that's truly random (e.g. the difference in arrival times of data packets over the network). That would make it both quasi-random and non-deterministic.

Rumors like this spread because by its very definition, a random sequence will sometimes generate a fluke series of unusual events. I try to counter this by applying statistical analysis to see how likely it is that a series of events are a fluke.

Arliana - Dreamweaver

There si no way to determine error though, if it is using something complexe like the zaishen chest in guild wars, there will be nearly no way to determine the sequence... btw, z chest is a chest that randomly generates 1 item from the entire game based on how many of such item is in existance at the time, time of day, and number of hits, etc. probably 1 of the more complicated things in existance for a game. duke blacke must have a much much simpler coding.

gouraudpalm2

The problem is with the function to obtain these numbers.

for example in c++

random_number = rand()

inside the "rand()" the internal code to generate the number is the thing i am talking about.

your statement "The generation of random numbers is not a difficult thing to do" is half true and half wrong because:

It is easy to generate a random number for c++ /vb programmers and most high level languages, but these numbers aren't obtained "magically", the "rand()" routine is from a lower level language (closer to the hardware) that you don't see when programming, but it does exists and applies one of the methods i described in my post.

I am not telling that the rumors are fake,i also believe that the rumors programming is very doable,but i am pointing to that you can't define their trueness only analyzing a little amount of data, (let 's say the stars of a weapon like : 2,2,1,2,1,2,2,1,2,1,2..... with a not-so-random system

but if you make an array of 1000 cases (i don't have the english word but in spanish 1000 cases are called "tasa") would be interesting.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_number_generation for more information.

again, sorry for bad english

Arliana - Dreamweaver

I realize what your saying, thing is, they dont have to make their own randomly generated numbers, or a program to randomly generate numbers either. Its not unheard of a programmer using an older programming language. Anyways, I think we should stop with this random discussion now. Its completely off topic which was a guide to Duke Blacke.

Paynefulsynn - Heavens Tear

http://www.1perfectworld.com/guide-submission-hall/2049-all-duke-deer-tips.html