Random Settings?

[docbud]

Is there anyway to change this alleged "random" settings so far as map terrain and make it stick/remember?

I swear to God Almighty himself that I get that blue/grey (biosphere crap) 90 percent of the time.

I can't believe that I have to go to advance settings every game I play to make sure I don't get that terrain. I prefer lush.

But this game insists that "random" is that blue/grey crap.

Any ideas?

 

[Qbix]

Random should be random. Might be your personal bad luck or an ingenius idea by Firaxis to bring ourselves to believe that we are really on an alien world.

 

[docbud]

^^Yeah--it must be bad luck. I know it happens quite a bit when I try to play as Africa or some of the other factions lower on the list (i.e., the order in which you select them).

 

[Xenotitan]

Or it happens randomly and the leaders have nothing to do with it and your experience is just a coincidence.

 

[docbud]

^^That could be. But I tried 17 games in a row as the African faction last night, and I got the dark blue/gray terrain each and every time. And I was varying my starting units (i..e, artists, scientists, etc.)

Now I realize that someone will chime in and explain what randomness is, but 17 out of 17?

And I have yet to play them or the ones that expand territory faster without that ugly terrain (unless I go to advanced settings and change to fertile or desert).

I'm on the Mac Store version, so maybe that something to do with it.

EDIT: In case someone says "pics or it didn't happen"--I did not take screenshots of all 17 attempted starts. Instead I marked it on a sticky note.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Random does not mean even.

 

[docbud]

^^I know that. I wasn't asking for even. But one would think that maybe out of 17 times, there might be a change. Sure it's set for random, but I guess I'm thinking of the odds of blue/grey 17 times in a row. I just tried it again--11 starts. And all 11 times it comes up as the blue grey.

EDIT: I just want to add--I mainly want to know if there is a way to change the default. I'm on the Mac version (Apple Store).

And I am not slamming the blue/grey--except that I personally don't like it. I don't mean to offend anyone.

 

[GeoModder]

I stopped relying on the 'randomizer' for the map terrain (lush, desert, fungal). It gave me most of the time the fungal landscape as well.

 

[docbud]

^^Thanks. At least I know I wasn't going crazy.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Random does not mean even.

 

[docbud]

^^I know that (for the second time)...

 

[mrjepson]

Were you playing a special map type? I've noticed that some of the special worlds have a preferred terrain type that will be used unless you go to advanced and change it.

 

[docbud]

^^Nope. Just the regular basic ones.

 

[Ryika]

Random does not mean even.

If all your posts are as useless as than, then you're more than just a minor annoyance.

@topic: I've tried that myself now and it gave me all 3 tilesets, couldn't find anything strange. What does it say, when you go to the advanced settings? Does it say random, or did it swap back to fungal?

If it says fungal, go to: Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\config.ini, search for PersistAdvancedSettings. If it's - for whatever reason - marked as 0 instead of 1, then that's most likely your problem.

 

[Baleur]

Random does not mean even.

While you think people dont understand the concept of randomness, it is you who does not understand the concept of probability. Getting the same result 17 times in a row, even with just a choice of 3 possibilities, is ridiculous.

This is something several games suffer from, where one can clearly notice that something called "random" is not in fact truly random. A lot of people have the misconception that "random" means that getting the same value 959 times in a row is fully plausible.
It is not. Probability plays a huge part in random outcomes. The only time such a coincidence would be plausible is when we are talking about astrophysics, where the scale of the universe itself is so vast that it renders improbable outcomes, inevitable.
This is not comparable to the probabilities of random systems when a human being playing a computer game a mere 17 times.
This is also why when you take a galaxy of 400 billion solar systems, you're guaranteed weird improbable outcomes.
But when you roll a dice 40 times, you wont roll 40 sixes in a row. You wont even roll 17 sixes. Try it, i dare you.

So next time you choose to reply, make sure you understand the concept better than the person you are trying to correct. Happy new year.

 

[m15a]

While you think people dont understand the concept of randomness, it is you who does not understand the concept of probability. Getting the same result 17 times in a row, even with just a choice of 3 possibilities, is ridiculous.

This has nothing to do with the game anymore, but since you're calling out another user on their knowledge and are wrong, I feel like I should call you out on calling someone else out. It can definitely be possible and even likely to get 17 identical outcomes from a random event with 3 options. If one result has 99.998% probability and the other two have 0.001% probability, then you'd expect to get the first result 17 times in a row despite the outcome being random.

Of course, the game should not have that distribution - the distribution should be pretty close to a uniform distribution, in which case getting 17 of the same result would be unlikely.

Back on topic, since the game probably wants something close to uniform, there might be something wrong with the RNG of the game. But since someone else is not getting similar results, it might be something wrong with the OPs game specifically (some setting) or maybe they're re-rolling wrong.

 

[Ryika]

This has nothing to do with the game anymore, but since you're calling out another user on their knowledge and are wrong, I feel like I should call you out on calling someone else out. It ca definitely be possible and even likely to get 17 identical outcomes from a random event with 3 options. If one result has 99.998% probability and the other two have 0.001% probability, then you'd expect to get the first result 17 times in a row despite the outcome being random.

That doesn't have much to do with that specific case though, because although he didn't specifically mention it, it's quite obvious that, if you have 3 terrains to choose from, a "random"-function is expected to have a 1/3-chance for each of them, instead of prioritizing one over the other two. And if it DID favor one to an extend that leads to the results being very one-sided, then most people would probably call that function broken.

That said, while 11111111111111111 is equally as likely as for example 13223123332121221, it's still a very strange thing to dismiss someones observations by saying "Random is random!" (and even doubling down on that notion, creating a second, identical post, although his point has been addressed the first time he made it) when there's such a clear pattern in something that could easily be bugged.

 

[m15a]

That doesn't have much to do with that specific case though, because although he didn't specifically mention it, it's quite obvious that, if you have 3 terrains to choose from, a "random"-function is expected to have a 1/3-chance for each of them, instead of prioritizing one over the other two. And if it DID favor one to an extend that leads to the results being very one-sided, then most people would probably call that function broken.

That said, while 11111111111111111 is equally as likely as for example 13223123332121221, it's still a very strange thing to dismiss someones observations by saying "Random is random!" (and even doubling down on that notion, creating a second, identical post, although his point has been addressed the first time he made it) when there's such a clear pattern in something that could easily be bugged.

Oh, I agree with all that. Please don't take my post as defending Minor Annoyance's (double) post. Like I said, all the discussion of what "random" means is off topic.

 

[docbud]

Sorry for causing problems, if I have done so. And thank you

Ryika--I had checked the advanced setting before rolling the other games, and it was random.

In any event, I've since just decided to go to advanced settings every time I play a game and choose the terrain I want.

And it would be something with my game/settings. I'm on the Apple Store version (Mac), and pre-patch.

 

[Piemaster]

I doubt this helps you much, but I always play on random terrain and I haven't noticed any flaw in the randomness (although I've only played about 8 games I think so I might just not have noticed).