Random? Numbers (was:RE: Brand Loyalty (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Require ments for MM(wasComplexities of MMOG Servers)))

[Lars Duening]

Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:
> From: Jeff Freeman [mailto:skeptack at antisocial.com] 

>> So instead of tracking skill usage and then trapping skill gain
>> which is too rapid (due to greater than average usage) or too
>> slow (due to fumbled skillchecks or 'casual play') [snip...]

> This is completely tangential to your original point, but has
> anyone considered making a 'fun' random number generator. As a
> first cut, it might involve the following :
 
>   - Prevent long streaks of critical failures.
 
>   - Encourage streaks of critical success every so often (perhaps
>   when their hp are low etc.) e.g. 3 critical hits landing in a
>   row always feels good.
 
>   - Most of the time get results vaguely in the middle of the
>   range.
 
> This would of course move the distribution into something a little
> odd (and I don't think it could represent the streak intervention)
> but it might well be fun.

Well, for starters you could generate multiple 'normal' random
numbers, add them up, and then scale the result to fit your target
range - that gives you an approximately bell-shaped distribution,
with the prevention of critical failure streaks as a free gift.

To encourage streaks of critical successes, you could take the
original bell-distributed random value, multiply it by a factor > 1
and then clip the result to your target range. This moves the bulge
of the number distribution towards the high end of the value range,
making critical successes more and critical failures even less
likely.

...hmm, in a game with gods and belief systems, this would be a nice
way to reward truly pious players.

--
Lars Duening; lars at bearnip.com
GPG Key: http://www.bearnip.com/lars/lars-duening.gpgkey

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev