Tales of the RNG

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Gaear, Jan 30, 2008.

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  1. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Funny RNG story:

    I just recently played through the beginning of the Moathouse (outside and ground floor interior) on two separate tries. Basically identical level 2 party both times.

    The first time I did the bandit fight inside, things went my way. I was able to block the raging bandit leader from getting through the door, and escaped without casulaties and without too much trouble. RNG seemed neutral. Onto the lower level!

    The second time was another story. The bandit leader greased himself up with KY jelly and squeezed through the blocked up doorway, and proceeded to cut my sorcerer in half on his ensuing automatic critical. One dead.

    But the regular bandits were not to be outdone. They scored a streak of something like 16, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 20, 14, 18, 18 before they were through. (I didn't start noting the rolls until it became "I am no longer immersed in the game!" distracting, so they actually had a longer streak than that.) Meanwhile, my guys were whiffing away hard and long enough to create a 30 mph wind. Their flanking, AoOs, and sneak attacks meant nothing.

    I prevailed in the end on the strength of some last minute heroics from my ranger, but the only other guy left standing was my wizard with 1 HP.

    But then, one bandit who I had put to sleep and forgotten about woke up, apparently refreshed and revitalized, and criticaled the ranger for another insta-kill. The endgame of the bandit chasing my 1 HP wizard around for a couple rounds was marginally amusing, but the outcome was never in doubt.

    Dead, dead, dead. Kenter Nevets is going to worry after a couple days with no news from the gang who promised to "bring those bandits to justice." :eek:_O:
     
  2. Old Book

    Old Book Established Member

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    If I ever get time to do the dialog re-writes, the key quest givers and chattier townsfolk are going to have at least a few comments on the lines of "We've had mercenary companies through here before, talkin all big about clearin out the local bandits. Them bandits are still raidin, and no Adventurers have come back yet."

    "Hells, some of them bandits were probably Adventurers to start with."
     
  3. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

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    @Old Book: After some talks with Allyx, I may ask for some assistance from you for my new mod changes.
     
  4. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    Whatever he say's, don't listen to him, HB2 doesn't NEED a plot....:blink:
     
  5. Old Book

    Old Book Established Member

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    I'll PM you.
     
  6. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    The Mersenne Twister strikes again ...

    Scenario: Moathouse battle with Lareth's guards outside his chambers.

    Mersenne behavior: Lareth's lieutenant and 3 guardsmen get initiative. All four score criticals with their respective bows in the first 4 turns of the first round of combat, and 3 of my crew are just about dead before any of my guys have even had a turn.

    Outcome: none. I quit the game without going through the motions any further, because I absolutely knew that this wasn't going to be my fight. And not just because half my guys were pretty much dead already either. I knew the Mersenne was not only not with me, but not even neutral, and that if I persevered I'd only have a dazzling array of additional criticals, 17s, 18s, and 19s to prove what I already knew.

    What are the odds of rolling a twenty sided die four times and getting a twenty on each roll, anyway? I guess I don't really know, but wouldn't it be somewhere in the range of a million to one or so? I should play the lottery. :shame:
     
  7. Half Knight

    Half Knight Gibbering Mouther

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    Sheesh, you're grumpy today, Gaear :p
    but, since this seems to be similar to the "Irritating" thread, let's blow off some steam:
    The same as this beauty:
    Missing.jpg
    Those are four consecutive turns (also note that the two-wielding character missed both attacks), but the pearl was that two rounds later, my two wizards with True Strike casted on them, both rolled 1, wasting the spell :yawn:

    And i still have to see a succesful copy scroll roll. I swear it, my mages have only three spells for each level in their known list. Their inventory full of scrolls waiting to be copied...

    I wonder if the motherf****r who made the mersenne system thought in the probabilities...or if he ever rolled a dice (any dice) to see the average rolls... :rant:

    Aahh, much better...ranting it's always satisfying :p
     
  8. Tuco

    Tuco Member

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    Just a quick question, in my roll window all I get is the damage caused, or spells cast - I don't get the actual result of the dice roll as in the picture in Half Knight's post. Is there something I missed in the options menu?
     
  9. Qwinn

    Qwinn Established Member

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    /channels his inner math geek:

    The odds of rolling 4 20's (or 4 1's) in a row should be 1 in 20x20x20x20, or 1 in 160,000. Not 1 in millions or anything, but it should be pretty darn rare. Be aware, though, that that is the odds of -each and every roll- you ever make being the first of 4 consecutive 20's. If you play long enough where you've actually had the game roll a few hundred thousand times through all the various battles and stuff, the odds of it happening at least once actually become pretty good. I have no idea how much you'd have to play to have that many rolls happen though.

    If you prefer, think of it this way... assuming that, in a normal playthrough the computer rolled 20 sided dice about 8,000 times, the odds that you'd see 4 consecutive 20's during that playthrough would probably be about 1 in 20. (160,000 / 8,000 = 20).

    Qwinn
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2008
  10. erkper

    erkper Bugbear Monk Supporter

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    Quinn, you're taking all the fun out of our ranting. The Mersenne Twister is EVIL. Don't try any of that logical crap with us.


    Tuco-

    The rolls window should show the attack and result with part in blue - the blue is a hyperlink that will open up the window H_K showed if you click on it.
     
  11. Half Knight

    Half Knight Gibbering Mouther

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    When something it's highlighted in blue, it means it's a "link" to information, so you can click it.
    Click on damage taken, and you'll get info of it. Click on misses for example, and you'll get why you've missed.
    In the pic i've posted, you'll see that almost everything it's blue, so you can click it for additional info.
    In-game you can press "H" and click on something (a feat, a skill...) and you'll get a game "player's handbook" .
     
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