How Many Maps Are There?

[Vegasgustan]

This may sound like a stupid and or strange question, but how many possibilities are there when you just start a new game?

I guess what I am asking is if there is a strong possibilty that you will play the same map twice when you select random on all the settings.

I swear I just started off in the exact same spot twice in a row. I did not save the first, so I cannot be sure. All I did was put everything on random and started the game. Then, I did not like where I was (all tundra, no anything) and then tried the same settings again and I swear it was the same. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

The randomly generated seed that is used when creating your map is 9 digits long. So that's a 10^9 chance, or 1 out of 1 billion... chances are it wasn't, but it may have been.

 

[Vegasgustan]

So what you are saying Ginger Ale is that there 1 billion different maps?
NICE!!!

 

[Tomoyo]

Can't you use letters for the seed though? Arathorn once played a SG on the "arathorn" map.

 

[Yuri2356]

In that case, it's 36^9. (1 in 101 559 956 668 416) That's a lot of maps...

 

[Brain]

So what you are saying Ginger Ale is that there 1 billion different maps?
NICE!!!

That's not quite how it works. The world seed is just the number at which the random number generator should start. It is most likely a 32 bit number in which case the number of possibilities is 2^32, or about 4 billion. However, this is just what the algorithm uses as a starting point. Other things such as what options you choose, temperature, water coverage, etc. also affect the outcome.

 

[thescaryworker]

Yuri, You forgot about the different options (size=*5;landmass=*9;worldfeatures=*27)
Thats a total of *1215
There are a total of 123395347352125440 maps.
In words it's:
one-hundred twenty-three quadrillion, three hundred nintey-five trillion, three hundred forty-seven billion, three hundred fifty-two million, one hundred twenty-five thousand, four hundred forty maps. (try saying that two times in one breath)

 

[Vegasgustan]

Why don't we just say that there is a $#!& load of maps and be done with it?

Thanks to everyone!

 

[ybbor]

In words it's:
one-hundred twenty-three quadrillion, three hundred nintey-five trillion, three hundred forty-seven billion, three hundred fifty-two million, one hundred twenty-five thousand, four hundred forty maps. (try saying that two times in one breath)

yeah! did it (got a little quiet, and maybe a tad uninterpretable halfway through the 2nd time though)

 

[Admiral8Q]

The math! All the math! It's giving me a headach!!!

 

[CIV34ME]

Yuri, You forgot about the different options (size=*5;landmass=*9;worldfeatures=*27)
Thats a total of *1215
There are a total of 123395347352125440 maps.
In words it's:
one-hundred twenty-three quadrillion, three hundred nintey-five trillion, three hundred forty-seven billion, three hundred fifty-two million, one hundred twenty-five thousand, four hundred forty maps. (try saying that two times in one breath)

Wow, that is alot of maps! Vegasgustan-That would mean you would have a better chance of winning the lottery 1 billion times in a row than getting the same map twice.

In other words, I do not think you got the same map twice.

 

[Yuri2356]

Yuri, You forgot about the different options (size=*5;landmass=*9;worldfeatures=*27)
Thats a total of *1215
There are a total of 123395347352125440 maps.
In words it's:
one-hundred twenty-three quadrillion, three hundred nintey-five trillion, three hundred forty-seven billion, three hundred fifty-two million, one hundred twenty-five thousand, four hundred forty maps. (try saying that two times in one breath)

Wouldn't the smaller maps have a lower number of possible appearances due to the lower number of variables? (tiles)

 

[thescaryworker]

The way the map is set up is calculated on the seed #. I think that the computer calculates what each tile would be if it was a normal size, and then compresses or expands the map to how big it needs to be.

 

[Yuri2356]

But would it always compress/expand a given seed the same way, every time?

 

[thescaryworker]

No, it might randomly choose what to put there based on what was origionally in those spaces, and randomly choose which one to represent.

 

[thescaryworker]

If any tile could be next to any tile, this is what the largest number of the smallest possible maps there could be: 24[including land marks]^(16^2) which is 24^256= about:
[4.64556926 x 10^176]^2
maybe I was off by a factor of 10^140
Not including LMs would be: 17^256 =
(3.14385087 x 10^157)^2
Am I crazy?

 

[Theoden]

Vegasgustan - is it possible you pressed the play last world button instead of new game?

 

[Darix]

All those math sounds great, but I think Theoden has the best answer.

 

[microbe]

Take standard map as an example, if 70% water tiles, totally 3000 land tiles. Assume:
8% for jungles, marshes, hills, mountains and deserts (240)
10% for forests (300)
25% for plains and grasslands (750)

Let's ignore water tiles, rivers and other terrains, it's

750!
---------------------------- = 2E+2508
(240!)^5 * 300! * (750!)^2

The real number would be much smaller as the same terrain tiles tend to be together. See this as the cap.

 

[Vegasgustan]

Vegasgustan - is it possible you pressed the play last world button instead of new game?

I don't remember there being a play last world button on the Mac version. I probably just looked the same. You know, since I did not explore the first time I really have no way of knowing. Anyway, my question certainly spawned alot of talk. Fun stuff!

Thanks!