The Random Number Generator and You!

E_T · December 6, 2001, 14:38

Are you wishing for that special something from that goodie Hut? Do you want better results from your Combat Engagement? Or has Pollution struck at the wrong place at the most inopportune time? Do you still want the Vital Resource to not go away? Well there is something that you can do to change this!

As it currently stands, the Random number generator in CivIII really s**ks. It apparently works on a very fixed Random table that is not very Random. If you reload and do the exact thing over again, then the results are the same. If you just change them just a little, then the results are more favorable or not so favorable. What to do?

Introducing the Catapult Bombardment Strategy (CBS)! All of the upgrades work too, but I like the name! Have yourself some useless terrain with a Road that your worker has placed there. Just bombard the square before that vital Fight, or before you go to the next turn, so that that Vital Resource doesn't disappear at the wrong time, or that the Pollution strikes at a different city! The possibilities are endless.

This will work until they patch the Random Number Generator Algorithm.

E_T

MarshalN · December 6, 2001, 15:53

Actually, they intentionally fixed the random generator so that if you just reload and repeat what you did, you won't get a different result. This is obviously there to prevent people from reloading massively until they get what they want.

Allemand · December 6, 2001, 20:36

This is a neat trick, and can be extended out by having maybe a half-dozen catapults standing by with different targets. But it seems like a lot of extra work to get a small advantage.

Expatriate · December 7, 2001, 05:01

If youre going to cheat, why not just use a savegame editor?

The RNG was made that way to make it harder to use the continual reload cheat. And yes, it is a cheat. Not that there is anything wrong with cheating in a singleplayer game.

Skanky Burns · December 7, 2001, 08:56

If youre going to cheat, why not just contact another civ?? It changes the seed for the next 'random' number, and is a lot less annoying than bombarding and rebuilding a road