Is 25% chance to enslave enemy units random?

[marioflag]

In my last game i founded OO and utilized Slavery civic.
My question is the 25% chance is random or is it scripted?
I noticed that enslaving units seemed to follow a precise order, for example it seems to me that after you enslave a unit it is really likely that the following unit will be enslaved, after 2-3 units enslaved the next 10-15 units will only die without being enslaved, after these 10-15 units you get 2-3 units enslaved in succession and the cycle will repeat again.
So is it just my impression or slavery civic really functions in this way?

 

[coko]

Sounds more like a random pattern you noticed, I mean 10-15 is rather a lot of units, if you think you'll have a chance of 1 in 4 to get a slave, that doesn't increase with each one, so it is random but "likely" really that you will every 6/7 times maybe?

 

[TheBoatman]

As always in computer science it is pseudorandom. The generator is started up with a string. But you shouldn't be able to notice the difference from true randomness. i would still trust the probability over human psychics.

If you want write a short script which will generate series of numbers whith the same function and you can find out.

 

[marioflag]

The chance to enslave a unit were more or less around 25% so i don't complain about it, what seems to me strange is that for nearly 400 turns of total war with other civs i had always a cycle of no unit enslaved around 10-15 a cycle of 2-3 sometimes 4 units in a row enslaved.
As i said before the chance of getting a unit enslaved didn't trend away from a 25%, but chance of getting a unit enslaved seemed to me not so random but following a precise order

 

[onedreamer]

Mario, a CPU cannot know what is really random. Randomness in the computer world is always scripted and yes, there might very well be a pattern.

 

[Kael]

Its just coincidence. Between each of those 4 successful enslaves in a row there are probably at least a dozen (maybe up to hundreds since you play on large maps with lots of civs) of random rolls being made. All random rolls come from the same generator, enslavement doesn't have its own. So even if you noticed a pattern in 4 succesful enslavements those 4 checks don't bear any similarity to each other in generation.

Even if the 4 successful enslavements are all from attacks right after each other each attack is probably 20-30 random rolls as they go through the combat process. It isnt' a single roll to see who wins a combat but a whole process of damaging each other until one unit is dead.

One of the most interesting facts about randomness is that its clumpy. Even dispersal isn't random, and true randomness only seems to be evenly dispersed at extremely large numbers and when it isnt investigated to closely.

Imagine blowing up a paint bomb in the center of a room. If randomness was evenly dispersed all of the walls should be equally covered after the bomb is set off. Instead you have sections of the wall that are missed and other sections that have thick gooey streams of paint on them. Its not that the paint didn't splatter randomly, but that randomness is clumpy. Looking at the room you will be able to find tons of patterns in the areas that are hit and not hit. A preference for 3 streams together, what looks to be the face of george takai on one wall, a wall that has significantly less paint than all the others. The data will seem to prove those results, until you set off another paint bomb in a similiar room and see that none of those patterns are duplicated, but a whole set of new "patterns" has emerged.

 

[eerr]

Its just coincidence. Between each of those 4 successful enslaves in a row there are probably at least a dozen (maybe up to hundreds since you play on large maps with lots of civs) of random rolls being made. All random rolls come from the same generator, enslavement doesn't have its own. So even if you noticed a pattern in 4 succesful enslavements those 4 checks don't bear any similarity to each other in generation.

Even if the 4 successful enslavements are all from attacks right after each other each attack is probably 20-30 random rolls as they go through the combat process. It isnt' a single roll to see who wins a combat but a whole process of damaging each other until one unit is dead.

One of the most interesting facts about randomness is that its clumpy. Even dispersal isn't random, and true randomness only seems to be evenly dispersed at extremely large numbers and when it isnt investigated to closely.

Imagine blowing up a paint bomb in the center of a room. If randomness was evenly dispersed all of the walls should be equally covered after the bomb is set off. Instead you have sections of the wall that are missed and other sections that have thick gooey streams of paint on them. Its not that the paint didn't splatter randomly, but that randomness is clumpy. Looking at the room you will be able to find tons of patterns in the areas that are hit and not hit. A preference for 3 streams together, what looks to be the face of george takai on one wall, a wall that has significantly less paint than all the others. The data will seem to prove those results, until you set off another paint bomb in a similiar room and see that none of those patterns are duplicated, but a whole set of new "patterns" has emerged.

and random number generators tend produce more or less often- the same pattern again and again

 

[Dark Russell]

I get wierd patterns with goodie huts. Whatever I seem to pop first tends to dominate what I pop with my scouts. For instance I played one game as Clan of Embers on monarch with a huge map and must have popped 50 huts. The first pop was done by my settler for a low gold result. About 80% of the huts I popped that game were low gold. I also played a game with the Khazad on monarch with a huge map where I popped about 10 huts, all with warriors. The first one gave me a tech and so did 6 others (thats 7 out of 10 with warriors). I know it is just random, but after playing many games it seems whatever I pop first will dominate what I will get...it is sort of my foreshadowing on how the game might end.

 

[Silverkiss]

Yes, I experienced that with huts too. And I also noticed that if you get one tech, the next one you get seems to be the next for that tier. For example, you get fishing and the next tech is sailing.

 

[jaredbb]

I know it is just random, but after playing many games it seems whatever I pop first will dominate what I will get...it is sort of my foreshadowing on how the game might end.

I'll second that. I just started a couple of games (emperor) where i had 6/8 maps from goodie huts one game and then 5/7 techs for the other. Kinda' makes me wonder what the random number mechanics are. I also notice that on Emperor there is always on civ that has a sprint out of the gate tech wise...I always assume their scouts have the sweet "random number" for goodie huts.

 

[Dark Russell]

Ya, makes me wonder if there is some variable that isn't getting flushed before the next pop.

@Silverkiss: I got Ancient Chants - Mysticism - Philosophy - Way of the Wicked before turn 30 like that once.

 

[Silverkiss]

Ya, I got some weird things too, and I saw someone else saying they got too, don't remenber who, but they said they got Alchemy I think at turn 12 or something... Don't remenber exactly, but was something like this.