Random Numbers

[AI]

The lessluck era is a simple add-on that can be downloaded from inside the game.

Sauron's mod is a patch to the game. He provides a windows executable because it's notoriously difficult to compile anything complex under windows. On Mac OS X, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, AmigaOS and other operating systems, this is far easier, so just grab the sources, apply the patch and compile it. (another reason is that Sauron uses windows and it's a lot more difficult to provide binaries for systems you don't have.

[thespaceinvader]

"..You appear to act as if you understand probability.."

Friend, you have no idea. You may think you understand probability but what you show you don't understand is the application of probability to a process and that's essentially what a game like Wesnoth is. If the random number generator cannot show the reported odds within a reasonable sample size then it is broken. Plain and simple. You can't just open a text book and expect to have a solution.

SSI and other hexbased strategy game makers resolved this problem fairly early on to where you don't see this kind of inconsistancy. In Panzer General II, for example, if you are given a prediction of the rough odds you will generally see that kind of performance. There is some variation but total systematic departure for samples >10 just doesn't happen. So I'll restate it: The Wesnoth method of resolving combat is broken.

I ask you again to put your alleged statistical prowess where your mouth is, and conduct a statistical study on what's inconsistent about Wesnoth's RNG. Until then, your assertions don't really mean much.

Further to this: the resources are available. As of 1.6, every single match played on the official server is recorded on replays.wesnoth.org. You're eminently welcome to perform whatever statistical analysis you like on them and, as long as your analysis stands up, I suspect the results would be acted upon - if improvements are needed, the devs are usually happy to supply them. But to date, in nearly 5 years, NOONE has taken us up on this kind of offer.

We've done our own analysis on our RNG, and it is about as random as it is possible to get using a computer to make the numbers. Randomness doesn't mean nice even distributions. It means random distributions. That's the very definition of the term, pretty much.

If you ever do do anythign about this rather than just complaining, you're welcome to PM me or any other dev and get this thread reopened. but for now, since these threads invariably (and I do mean that literally) develop into angry shouty flame wars, I'm going to preclude that event by locking it. Have fun doing your analysis