Repeat Galaxies

[Tomgs]

I just had something strange happen. I tried a new strategy so I had the computer on medium difficulty. The game went very fast and I had the galaxy well under control early so I started a game with identical settings except on hard. I got the same galaxy with the same starting planets. I noticed it because two of the planets in my starting system were habitable by me. I recalled my saved game and all the systems were in the same place and as I explore more all the planets in each system I go to is the same as it was in the first game. The alien locations are different and one new race is in the game. I have started many games but I have never had a galaxie repeat before that I have noticed. Has anyone else seen this happen? I will have to try a new game and make sure that something isn't glitched with my program.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 02 November 2000).]

[Saben]

A little secret of computer science is that random isn't. The computer is incapable of produceing real random numbers, so instead a value (the seed) is taken from a source which changes alot (ie number of seconds since midnight), and then run thru a few functions to yeild your number. If you put in the exact same seed, you will get the exact same sequence of "random" numbers.

[Tomgs]

Well I started 3 or 4 other games just to see if it happened again and it didn't. I must have just won the random occurance award. Of course there will be I assume a bit more things in the full Version, making a repeat galaxy even less likely, it was just very strange getting the same one twice in a row. If my starting position was on the other side of the galaxy I would probably never have noticed it since I use a large galaxy size.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 02 November 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 02 November 2000).]

[greghacke]

In coding, I usually fudge the random sequence. A good trick for you coders out there...

Seconds since arbtrary time * Day of the week (1=Monday or what ever you want) * Week of the year

Following this random seed, it takes decades of gaming to get the same number. I even toss in a fourth multiplier. (the Last 4 digits of the machine's processor ID)

[dmm]

You have to watch out with random number generators. Some of them stink! (By the way, they're ALL actually pseudo-random. Eventually they repeat. ) Lousy ones will generate a nice sequence of numbers that seems pretty random, but if you keep seeding it and looking at the result, you find that the generator is actually only able to generate a small number of "random" series. The chance that one "random" series will be identical to another "random" series can be quite high if your algorithm stinks badly enough. And it turns out that making a non-lousy one is harder than you'd think it would be.

Is that what happened in this case? NAH! It's a bug!

How do you like my use of emoticons? I just figured it out!

[This message has been edited by dmm (edited 02 November 2000).]

[Seawolf]

Just a point,

Just becasue the planets were in the same location doesn't mean that they had the same minerals and the like. Also if ou set it to "hard" trsut me you would like knowing where everything is. The game would not have been the same.



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Seawolf on the prowl