Supply Pods not entirely random?

[hellrazor]

Has anyone noticed that supply pod popping does not seem to be entirely random? I've often got 3 artifacts in a row, or hit nothing but mineral resources all over the place, or (horrors!) nothing but fungal bursts. One game I got 3 Mark I Ogres...I almost felt like I was cheating.

Has this ever been listed as a bug? It does seem to be fairly common for computer games to have random generators that are not entirely random...does anyone remember the combat bug in Colonization. It would seem that someone would have figured out a better way to generate a random seed by this time.

[Fitz]

You may be correct, but IIRC there are a few things that affect what you get. If the pod is inside a base radii, you usually get something beneficial. If native lifeforms are more active, you are more likely to get fungas blooms or native lifeforms.

[Hawkeye_td]

Hellrazor makes a very good observation. While the manual does note that settling bases near pods tends to decrease the likelihood of the pod triggering mind worms or fungus, the tendencies are much deeper than that.
In many games, I have found that the pods tend to generate one category of things more than another - sometimes they are mostly alien artifacts, sometimes battle ogres tend to appear, sometimes monoliths. I can only venture to explain this by saying maybe Firaxis planned it this way - perhaps some of the variables in the "pod effect generator" have to do with what faction you are playing or the size of your continent or map type or something.
Furthermore, I have noted that the events are somehow predetermined (at least a turn or two in advance). In one game which the terranx bug shut down for me a turn later, I got a supply pod with minerals that finished a network node for me. Terranx shut the game down, and I had to reload a turn before the popping of the pod. This time, no matter how many times I reloaded the game, the pod always produced either a unity rover or an earthquake. So, who knows? Clearly the events generated by the pods are not COMPLETELY random. Also, I seem to remember the Prima guide (which I put to the only use it is good for, i.e. paper recycling) saying that Isles of the Deep are three times more likely than any other sea pod event. Based on my own play experience, this seems to be true.
Of course, there are also the triggers, but I suppose those are not highly relevant - by this I mean, faraway, late-game pods will generate lots of high morale mind worms instead of a few wimpy ones, the higher your tech development the better a battle ogre you get, unity choppers do not appear until mind/machine interface, etc.

Just my two cents. If any more experienced players can make sense of this, I am glad it was useful.

On a side note (Sorry if this is off-topic, but it doesn't deserve its own thread...), in the late game when eco-damage mindworms are generated, and I destroy them, I sometimes get a little note on the bottom of the screen saying something to the effect of "Our psi-talents note that these mindworms seem to have a vastly more powerful psi-source controlling them." Does anyone know the significance of this? The storyline doesn't explain it, and they're definitely not other factions' mindworms...

[mark13]

Also, of course, you have to remember that even if something is entirely random, you will get multiple instances of the same thing occurring - it is how randomness works. And although some game parameters may dictate the likelihood of a certain event taking place, you can never predict exactly how many fungal blooms/battle ogres etc. you will get.

Edit - just seen hawkeye's post - the statement you described at the end means that you can't capture the mind worms, IIRC.
[This message has been edited by mark13 (edited January 03, 2001).]

[Blake]

quote: On a side note (Sorry if this is off-topic, but it doesn't deserve its own thread...), in the late game when eco-damage mindworms are generated, and I destroy them, I sometimes get a little note on the bottom of the screen saying something to the effect of "Our psi-talents note that these mindworms seem to have a vastly more powerful psi-source controlling them." Does anyone know the significance of this? The storyline doesn't explain it, and they're definitely not other factions' mindworms...

I think this is when you try to catch mindworms spawned by planet due to ecodamage, basically you aren't allowed to capture mindworms if you are creating ecodamage, regardless of your planet rating and previous captures.

The most notable exception I've found to this was once when I captured a stack of a dozen worms/spore launchers and when I captured two stacks of 4 locusts, both cases the worms had been spawned due to ecodamage, but in the process the city lost some mineral production due to the attack, and the ecodamage fell to lower levels, and allowed me to capture the worms (8 free locusts is nice). Then again I was playing as uni recently and had changed to green, I had ecodamage at about 5 in several of my bases, no "something goes " warning/attack yet. I stumbled accross a worm in the fungus and captured it.

Anyway as for the stroyline significnce, I guess that planetmind controls the worms which are "punishing" you, while worms which you stumble accross in fungus are wild or independent. The actual game check to determine if a worm is "planetmind" or "wild" is determined by ecodamage, rather than where the worm came from. Ofcourse the message refers to planetmind controlling the worms.

[Sindai]

quote: On a side note (Sorry if this is off-topic, but it doesn't deserve its own thread...), in the late game when eco-damage mindworms are generated, and I destroy them, I sometimes get a little note on the bottom of the screen saying something to the effect of "Our psi-talents note that these mindworms seem to have a vastly more powerful psi-source controlling them." Does anyone know the significance of this? The storyline doesn't explain it,

Ummm....yes, actually. The storyline does explain it! As the planet draws nearer towards it's "flowering" and gains sentience, it's power and control over the worms increases to the point where you can no longer contorl them.